And It's Only Freshman Year!
by L.B.Wolfe
Summary: Marik Ishtar's freshman year of high school, it sucks. Completely. He's always being tormented by Seto Kaiba. He found out just two years ago that he's gay. Now there's this new kid who seems to hate Marik for no reason!Thiefshipping in later chapters.
1. Prolouge

**Author's Note: I'm going to warn everyone right now: There is going to be some major OOC-ness in this story (especially with Marik's family...) In this story, Marik is the hikari and Malik is the yami. However, they're twins in this story, since it's kind of an AU.**

**In this story, the yamis and the hikaris are going to be brothers. Marik and Malik are twins, Ryou and Bakura are twins, and Yami is going to be one year older than Yugi.**

**I don't know what Marik's parent's names are, so unless someone would be kind enough to tell me, they're going to be known as Mr. Ishtar and Mrs. Ishtar.**

**Also, this story will contain some thiefshipping, but it's my first attempt at yaoi, so when it does appear it's very brief and, quite frankly, not very good.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of it's characters (although, I would like to own Marik...and possibly Bakura.)**

**Oh, yeah, one more thing. (You can probably figure this out, but...) this chapter contains a flashback, which is in italics. For the rest of this story, either flashbacks or a person's thoughts will be in italics.**

* * *

Meet Marik Ishtar, an average teenage boy, just starting his freshman year at Domino City High. Well, he was completely average, except for one thing that set him apart from everyone else at school.

"Hey, Marik!" Jonouchi, known to almost everyone as simply "Jono" called. "My dad's actually gonna let me go bowling for my birthday this year!"

"Really? That's cool, Jono. I wish I could convince _my_dad to do something like that for mine and Malik's birthday."

"Yeah, and he says I can take five friends along with me. Let's see, I think I'll Yugi, Honda, Anzu, your twin brother and...I think Yugi's older brother."

"What, you're gonna tell me all about your party and then you're not gonna invite me?"

"Yup. I mean, I'm not sure whether or not you'd be allowed in the bowling alley, so better safe then sorry, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Hey, I'm only kiddin', man! Of course you're invited, why wouldn't ya be?"

"Oh, ha-ha, that was so funny. Why do you always gotta pick on the gay people, man?"

Yes, Marik Ishtar was gay. He had known that he was gay since he was in the seventh grade. He could clearly remember the uncomfortable moment when he had chosen to tell his parents...

_"Mom? Dad? I-I need to tell you something."_

_"What is it, honey?"_

_"I...um...I think...that is, I'm pretty sure...oh, I think I'm gay!"_

_"What?"_

_Marik nodded, tears beginning to well up in his eyes. He bowed his head. _

_"I'm-I'm sorry! I know that you must hate me now, but..." Mrs. Ishtar reached out and hugged her youngest son._

_"Marik, it's all right. We still love you, it doesn't matter."_

_"But, do you mind telling us...well, telling us why you feel like this, son?" Marik wiped his eyes. _

_"I-I think it's Yugi's older brother, Yami. I kind of get this funny feeling whenever I'm around him or when someone mentions him and-and it sounds a lot like when Ishizu was talking about this one guy she liked and how she felt around him and I've never liked any girls in my school..." He had to stop. He was crying again._

_"I see." Mr. Ishtar was silent for a moment, then reached out and patted Marik on the head. "Well, Marik, it doesn't matter to us. You're still our son, one way or another, that's all there is to it." _

_Marik looked up at his father and offered a small smile. "Thanks...for understanding."_

Of course, that had just been a child's crush. He certainly didn't like Yami Muto anymore, and-luckily-none of his friends ever found out that he had.

Marik had told his friends shortly after his parents that he was gay, and they accepted that, knowing that he was still the same person inside. They teased him lightly, but no more than they teased each other. And he never developed any feelings for any of them. They all remained friends, and nothing more.

But then, _he_ came to town.

* * *

**Well, quite personally, I think that this chapter is a fail. Hopefully it will start getting better in a few more chapters. Once again, I apologize for any OOC-ness in this story. I know that Marik's dad is actually a total jerk, but I'm already going to have one jerk, one mini-jerk, and one half-jerk in this story, so I didn't really want to him to be a cruel person in this story.**

**R&R, please! (It's my first Yu-Gi-oh! story, so I'm not sure if it'll take off or not.)**


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: I have decided that I am going to try my best to update this story weekly. I have never actually had a writing goal before, so we'll see how long this can last before I hit writer's block.**

**Thanks to: MaskYourSmile (first review!), Bakurafan100+, and Spottedpaw13 for reviewing! You made me so happy when I saw that people actually might like this story!**

* * *

Long, white hair hung in the boy's face. His eyes sparked mischievously as he cupped Marik's face in one hand. Marik supressed a small shiver as the boy leaned in closer...closer...

"Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy

(Hey, what up girl?)

Grab my glasses, I'm out the door, I'm gonna hit this city

(Lets go)

Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack

'Cause when I leave for the night, I ain't coming back"

Marik opened his eyes and groaned. Sitting up, he glared at his alarm clock and slapped the "snooze" button to shut the stupid thing up.

"Why must you always wake me up?" he muttered. Sighing, he climbed out of bed, and got dressed, trying not to think about the mysterious boy from his dreams. He'd been having dreams about the same boy for the past couple of weeks. It sturck him as odd, since he didn't know anyone with white hair. Well, other than Yugi's grandfather, but his hair was more gray than white. And-luckily-the boy was much younger than Yugi's grandpa.

The smell of burning toast brought Marik back to reality. Ugh. Malik was probably messing around with the toaster again.

"Hey, Mom?" Speak of the devil. "Am I supposed to butter the bread before or after I toast it?"

Smiling and shaking his head at his brother's antics, Marik left his bedroom and headed for the kitchen.

"Marik!" Odion called as Marik entered the kitchen. "Want some slightly...mostly...okay _completely _burned toast?"

"Uh, no thanks. I'm not very hungry." Marik never ate breakfast. It always made him feel sick, somehow. He glanced at the clock on the wall. "Malik we should probably go soon. You said you wanted to get to school early for basketball signups, right?"

"Uh-huh." Malik stood up and grabbed his backback. "Let's go."

"Hey, guys! Wait up!" Yugi Muto jogged to catch up with Marik, Anzu, and Jonouchi, all of whom were in his homeroom class.

"What's up, Yug?" Jono asked as the much shorter boy finally caught up to his friends.

"I heard that we're getting a new kid today!" Yugi said.

"Yeah, I heard that, too," Anzu replied. "I was staying after school yesterday and the teacher said that's he's gonna be in our homeroom."

"Cool," Marik said. "I wonder what he's like?"

"Lookin' for a boyfriend, Marik?" Jonouchi joked. Marik hit him over the head with his textbook, laughing.

"No, thanks! I prefer my freedom; boyfriends are _waaaaaay _too clingy," he replied, putting his hands on his hips.

"I'm with you there...only, with girlfriends, not boyfriends."

"Yeah, I sort of figured that."

"Hey, what're we standing around for?" Jonouchi said. "C'mon, let's get to class!" He took off running down the hallway.

"Hey, wait for us!" Yugi called.

"I've never seen Jono so excited to get to class before," Marik laughed.

"He's just excited to see the new kid," Anzu said. "But he's right, we should get to class before we're late."

The teacher closed his attendance book and waited for the class to quiet down.

"Kids," he began. "As some of you may know, we have a couple of new students joining us today. They just transferred here, so let's do our best to make them feel welcome." He turned towards the door. "All right, come on in."

The door opened and two boys entered. Immediatly, the room began to buzz.

"Two new kids? I thought that there was just one."

"Twins! Just like Malik and Marik!"

"Don't we have enough twins in this school already? We have to put up with more of them?"

"Oh my gosh, they are _sooooooo_ cute!"

Only Marik was silent, staring, dumbfounded, at the two boys at the front of the classroom.

Both boys had long, white hair and chocolate brown eyes. The first boy was kinder-looking, his eyes gentler, smiling broadly at his new classmates.

The second boy, however, seemed a bit rougher. His hair hung in his face more than his brother's and his face seemed etched into a permanent scowl. When his gaze met Marik's, however, the corner of his mouth was tugged upwards into a half-smirk. Marik blinked, and the smirk was gone, replaced once again by a glare.

Marik shook his head. There was absolutely no way that this was possible. Yet there it was, standing at the front of the classroom like a flashing neon sign.

The second boy was the same boy from Marik's dream.

* * *

**Well, this chapter seems a bit better than the last, but I still think it could be better. Then again, what do I know? I find things bad with all of my stories.**

**Please R&R!**


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: This chapter was one of my personal favorites to write. I'm not sure why, but it was fun writing it, and I hope you'll have fun reading it!**

**Thanks to: MaskYourSmile(reviewing barely two minutes after the chapter was uploaded!), Spottedpaw13, and Almond Luver for reviewing. You guys make me so happy! Oh, and Almond Luver, don't worry. You're NEVER too mature for a Disney classic. I try to watch one every night. :)**

**One last thing. This chapter will contain a flashback, but it's not in italics, despite what I said in chapter one. I don't know about anyone else, but I get dizzy when I read too many italics. So, just disregard what I said in chapter one about flashbacks.**

* * *

The boy's names turned out to be Ryou and Bakura.

"Why don't you boys go find a seat and I'll begin the leson?" the teacher said.

Bakura made a beeline for the back of the classroom, plunking his stiff down at an empty desk. Ryou slid into the empty seat next to Marik.

"Hi." He smiled. "What's your name?"

"I'm Marik. Marik Ishtar."

"Cool name. It sounds kinda foreign."

"Well, my family orignally comes from Egypt. It's sort of a tradition that the kids in my family are given Egyptian names."

"Really? That's a pretty neat tradition. So, is this school any good?"

"Um..." Marik hesitated. "Yeah, I guess it's okay."

"Are there any jerks that I should watch out for around here?" Ryou asked. One name came to Marik's mind as soon as the question reached his ears.

"Seto Kaiba," he replied. "He's a millionaire's son, so he acts like he owns the whole school. And most kids let him. He...uh, he decided a couple of years ago that he doesn't like me and he told everyone that if they hung out with me, he would see to it personally that their lives were ruined. He just didn't specify how, exactly."

"Whoa. Do you know why he just decided that he doesn't like you?"

Marik shook his head. "No, but it doesn't matter. It's helped find out who my real friends are."

In truth, Marik knew all too well why Kaiba didn't like him, but he didn't feel very comfortable talking about it, especially since he had just met Ryou.

Kaiba hated Marik because he was gay. There had been a time - was it really just two years ago? - when they had been friends, but those days were long over. Now, Kaiba would do anything, pull every string that he had, just to make Marik's life miserable.

* * *

When class ended and Marik headed to his locker, his path was blocked by none other than Seto Kaiba.

"I can't seem to recall giving you my permission to walk these hallways freely, Ishtar. Just who do you think you are?"

Marik felt like saying, "Since when did I have to ask your permission for anything? Last time I checked, I could do whatever I wanted." Instead he muttered a halfhearted, "You're not the boss of me."

"Oh, aren't I?" Kaiba took a step closer to Marik. "Just remember, money is power. I have money, therefore, I have power. Does someone need to be taught a little lesson about obeying their superiors?"

Marik cringed. He looked at the ground nervously, shaking his head. Why couldn't he stand up for himself to Kaiba, just once? They were in the middle of the hallway, he couldn't do anything with so many people who would see him.

"Yo, Kaiba, if you're finished picking on Marik, isn't ther some sixth graders you need to steal lunch money from?" Malik was suddenly staning next to Marik, his arms crossed and a cocky smirk on his face. "And I hope you know that it's against the law to threaten someone. The school's law at least. If we decide to go to the principal, it wouldn't matter how much money you have. You'd still be suspended."

Kaiba glared at Malik for a few moments, then muttered, "It'd be your word against mine." He turned and strode away. Marik let out a sigh of relief.

"Thanks, Malik."

"I got your back, bro." Malik leaned against the wall as his younger-by-two-minutes brother twirled his combination lock and opened his locker. "To be honest, I really can't see why you let the guy intimidate you so much. So he's got money - big deal! You shouldn't let him scare you just cuz of that, Marik."

Marik winced inwardly. Of course Malik didn't know. why he was so afraid of Kaiba. Only he knew. And he would never tell anyone.

**(Begin Flashback: Seventh Grade)**

It was almost dark by the time Marik left the school. He had been sick the last few days, so he had stayed after to catch up on his math. (Math was his worst subject, so he couldn't risk falling behind.) He hadn't ebb nable to get a ride, so he had to walk home. Luckily, his house wasn't too far from the school.

As he passed by a dark alley, he thought he heard a slight rustling sound. Passing it off as a stray cat, he ignored it.

The last thing he was expecting was to be grabbed and violently jerked back into the dark cover of the alley.

He hit the pavement with a dull thud and strained in the dim light to see his attacker.

"Seto Kaiba?"

Kaiba roughly yanked Marik to his feet and held the Egyptian boy by the collar of his shirt. Pulling his fist back, he socked Marik right in the face. Marik recoiled from the blow, and Kaiba punched him again. Marik was aware of a warm, sticky liquid running down his face. His nose was bleeding, maybe even broken.

"Damn you, you fag!" Kaiba hissed, punching Marik between words. "I can't believe that I actually hung out with you!"

"K-Kaiba, I can't help it if I'm-"

"Shut up!" Another punch, harder than the other ones. A sickening crack resounded through the alley and Marik felt pain shoot up his jaw. Kaiba shoved him backwards and he sprawled onto the ground. His face a mask of raging fury, Kaiba kicked him in the stomach. Hard. Marik instictively doubled over.

"My father couldn't believe that I was so stupid to hang out with you. He says that he knew all along that you were gay!"

So that was it. Kaiba's father had ridiculed him again, and now Kaiba was taking his anger out on Marik.

"Kaiba, I-I'm s-" Marik was silenced by another kick to the stomach.

"If those fools would rather hang around you than me, then fine. Eventually they'll all desert you, anyway." One last kick, and Kaiba was gone, leaving a bruised and bleeding Marik curled up on the ground.

Marik forced himself into a sitting position and looked himself over. His nose wouldn't stop bleeding, his jaw hurt like crazy, and he could hardly breathe. With some difficulty, he stood up and dragged himself in the direction of his house.

He managed to get to the bathroom without being seen and washed his face carefully.

When he was done, he set the washcloth - now covered with rust-colored bloodstains - on the edge of the sink and studied his face in the mirror.

His cheek was already covered with a dark bruise and his nose was starting to take on a purplish tinge. Judging from the looks of it, he would probably have a black eye come tomorrow.

Gingerly, he touched his jaw, wincing from the pain. With a sigh, he headed downstairs.

"Marik! What on earth happened?"

He couldn't tell them. They would call the school, probably file a lawsuit, and he would get it even worse from Kaiba next time.

"I - uh - I fell down the stairs at school. That's all."

"Are you alright? You look pretty beat up for falling downstairs."

"I tripped at the top and rolled all the way down. I think I might have cracked my jaw, too."

"Good heavens! I'm calling the doctor this instant!" Mrs. Ishtar headed for the phone.

"Good idea. Sorry that I was such a klutz, Mom."

"Don't blame yourself, Marik. It wasn't your fault."

**(End Flashback)**

It was the biggest lie he had ever told his parents and probably ever would tell his parents. But that night had taught him a valuable lesson: Don't mess with Seto Kaiba.

* * *

**Please don't hurt me! I know that I made poor Marik suffer a lot in this chapter (if you think this is bad, just wait for future chapters.) but I needed some reason for him to be intimidated by Kaiba. But if this chapter made you angry because of Marik abuse, please do not hesitate to tell me!**

**R&R, please!**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Well, here it is: The next chapter of what is slowly becoming my favorite story to write! I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Thanks to: MaskYourSmile, Almond Luver, seira-g, Unruly, tailsiskool67, Spottedpaw13, and redwolfJM for reviewing! Every time I read your reviews it just encourages me to keep writing this story!**

* * *

The rest of the morning seemed to drag on at an unbearably slow pace. Finally, it was lunch time.

Marik sat down at his usual lunch table with Yugi, Anzu, Honda, and Jonouchi. Malik sat with them sometimes, but usually he sat with his friends on the basketball team.

"Hey, have you guys met the new kids yet?" Honda asked.

"Yeah, we saw them during homeroom and then Bakura was in my math class," Jonouchi replied. "I tried to talk to him, but he didn't really say too much."

"Maybe he's shy," Anzu suggested.

"Emo is more like it," Yugi said. "Did you see the look on his face when he came into homeroom? I half expected him to pull out a gun and start shooting us all!"

"Well, I saw Marik talking with Ryou a little during homeroom. What's he like?" Anzu asked.

"Well, he seems like an okay guy. He thought that my Egyptian heritage was pretty neat, unlike _some _people who think it's funny to ask me if I build pyramids on my spare time." Marik shot Jonouchi a pointed glance. His friend laughed nervously.

"Hey, it was just a joke, man! Lighten up. I haven't asked you that in a while."

"I met Ryou during history class," Yugi interrupted. "So did does seem like a nice guy."

"Speaking of Ryou, he's heading over here. Bakura's with him," Marik said.

"Do you think they wanna sit here? It's fine if they wanna hang with us. Thanks to Kaiba," Jono spat the name out venomously. "We don't have too many friends."

"Well, I doubt that they'd want to risk any reputation they might have earned already," Marik pointed out. "Remember? Kaiba's out to get me." _I'm surprised that you guys still like hanging out with me,_ he thought.

"Marik," Anzu began, but Honda cut her off.

"Look." He gestured to the middle of the cafeteria, where Ryou, Bakura and Seto Kaiba were now standing. The group of friends were too far away to hear what was happening, but it was clear from the way Kaiba kept pointing at their table that he was talk about them. More specifically, about Marik.

Kaiba said something that seemed to surprise the twins. Bakura raised his eyebrows and glanced towards Marik, only to look back at Kaiba, seemingly hanging on to his every word.

Ryou simply rolled his eyes and brushed past Kaiba, making a beeline for Marik's table.

"Is it okay if I sit here?" he asked as he approached.

"Sure, go right ahead," Jonouchi replied, gesturing to the empty seat beside Marik. Ryou sat down.

"You were right about that Kaiba guy," he told the Egyptian boy. "He _is_ a real jerk."

"Seems your brother likes him well enough." Marik jerked his head towards Kaiba and Bakura, who were now sitting and talking, glancing at Marik every so often. Ryou sighed.

"Yeah, that's my big brother, always trying to be cool. But he always believes what he's told about someone, even if it's an obvious lie. Especially if it's something bad about someone else. You guys wouldn't believe what Kaiba was telling us!"

"Er...what would that be, exactly?" Yugi asked, with an uncomfortable glance at Marik. Ryou let out a short laugh.

"He was trying to convince us that Marik was gay! can you believe that?"

Jonouchi coughed and looked up at the ceiling, Yugi and Honda suddenly became very interested in their milk cartons and Anzu bent her head over her plate. The smile slowly faded from Ryou's face.

"I mean... that _was _a lie...wasn't it?" He looked at marik questioningly. Marik took a deep breath; Ryou already knew, so he might as well tell him straight out.

"Ryou, I am gay. I've known it since I was in seventh grade. Remember how I told you that Kaiba hates me? That's the reason why. He was raised to stay away from people like me, and now he's embarrassed that he used to hang out with me. If you want, he'll probably still let you go hang with him. I'll understand if you walk away from this table right now and never speak to any of us again."

Ryou was silent, letting this sink in.

"Well," he finally said. "If I had to choose between you guys and the spoiled, rich kid, I'd definitely choose you guys. I can't stand prejudiced people like Kaiba. Besides," he said, with a small smile at Marik. "At my old school, I knew someone, one might say we were best friends, who's a lot like you."

* * *

**Argh! It's way short! Fear the filler chapter! (If I could classify it as that...it does add a little to the plot, but other than that, it's pretty much useless.) I'm sorry it was so short! Next chapter will be longer, I promise!**

**R&R please!**


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: I'm trying to come up with something clever for an author's note, but I'm having a bit of trouble. My brother's graduation party is coming up, so my mom's stressed out with trying to get everything together (it doesn't help that my birthday party is the same weekend as his graduation party) and now my grandfather's in the hospital, so my dad's stressed out, too. I'm actually typing this chapter up to relieve my stress!**

**Thanks to: seira-g, MaskYourSmile, Spottedpaw13, sandydragon, and The Awesome Alchemist or reviewing!**

* * *

Gym class. Marik's last class of the day. It was also the only class where he was pretty much alone with Kaiba. None of his friends were in this class with him.

"Okay, kids, softball. Ishtar, Kaiba, you're team captains," the teacher announced.

_"Damn," _Marik thought as he stood up. "_Why did it have to be softball? I _suck_ at softball!"_

"I'm picking first," Kaiba said. He glared at Marik and lowered his voice so that only the Egyptian boy could hear. "The superior always goes first."

"Just choose already, Kaiba," Marik muttered.

Kaiba surveyed the group of students in front of him, then smirked and shot Marik a look.

"Bakura." The white-haired boy stepped forward, glaring at Marik.

"_Perfect," _Marik thought bitterly. "_Another one of Kaiba's goons is in this class." _It was his turn to pick someone. He looked at the kids who were left.

"Uhh...Rex," he decided. Rex Raptor hung out with Malik sometimes, since they were both on the basketball team. He was a decent hitter and fairly fast when it came to softball. Rex shrugged and stepped up next to Marik.

Kaiba scowled and thought about his next choice. After a few moments, he grinned." Weevil."

Weevil Underwood was fairly short and a bit of a nerd. He didn't get a hit very often, but when he did, he could be at the base before the other players could even blink. He was also one of the school's "Kaiba followers".

"Uh..." Marik thought fast. "Mako." Mako Tsunami was captain of the swim team. He wasn't very fast, but he was a strong hitter. He could hit the ball so far into the outfield that the other team had to hunt for it. The teams were being chosen more quickly now.

"Duke."

"Mai."

"Miho."

"Espa."

In a matter of minutes, the teams were picked and Kaiba's team was up at bat. Being team captain, Kaiba batted first.

Mako, the pitcher for Marik's team, threw the ball under hand. (Throwing the ball overhand was prohibited during gym class for safety reasons.) Kaiba swung the bat.

-_Crack-_

The ball soared into the outfield and Kaiba started for first base.

"Heads up, Marik! It's heading your way!"

Marik gulped. Why did Kaiba always seem to try and purposely hit the ball towards him? What a stupid question.

Doubtfully, Marik Marik held up his glove and kept an eye on the softball, which was coming towards him, but was a little too far to the left. Kaiba had passed first and was heading towards second base.

"You can do it, Marik!" Rex called.

Marik dove for the ball as Kaiba started for third base. Miraculously, the ball landed in his glove. Marik's team cheered.

"Yeah! You're out, Kaiba!"

Marik gulped nervously as the millionaire's son glared at him.

"Lucky catch," Kaiba growled. "I'd like to see you try that again. Not that you could."

Miho as up after Kaiba. Being an even worse player than Marik, she was out easily. after three more people batted, Weevil was the third out and Marik's team was up to bat. Marik wiped his sweaty palms on his shirt and picked up the bat.

"_Crud,"_he thought when he saw that Bakura was pitching. "_Well, maybe he's not that good..."_

Bakura smirked at Marik.

"Easy out!" he taunted. Glaring, Marik lifted the bat to his shoulder.

"Just pitch already!" he yelled. "_What is up with this kid? Kaiba says one thing to him about ame and suddenly he hates me? I barely even know him!"_

Bakura tossed the ball. Marik watched, waiting for just the right moment before swinging.

"Foul ball!"

Marik cursed under his breath, then lifted the bat again.

"Foul!"

"It's alright, Marik! Just focus!" the teacher called. Easy for him to say. He wasn't surrounded by enemies on all sides. Weevil, Duke, even Mako was on Kaiba's side some of the time! And now there was Bakura...this game was practically life-or-death!

Marik prepared to hit the ball again, ready to wipe that stupid - yet strangely cute - smirk right off Bakura's face. He was vaguely surprised to see that it had already slipped off, replaced by a stone-cold glare.

Bakura pulled back his arm and threw the softball - overhand! - with all his might.

Straight at Marik's face.

Marik had no time to react before the ball made contact. He dropped the bat and fell down, cupping his face in his hands.

"Time out!" the coach yelled, hurrying on to the field. The rest of the class gathered around as he knelt by Marik. "You all right, Ishtar?"

"Ye-yessir," Marik responded, trying to stand. He got about halfway up before a sudden wave of dizziness struck him and he half-fell back down. He was most definitely NOT okay.

The coach frowned at Bakura. "What happened out there, Touzoku?"

"Well, I hadn't noticed it before, but my shoe's untied. When I stepped forward to pitch, I kind of tripped and the ball just sorta slipped from my hand," Bakura replied innocently.

"Ach!" Marik choked. Partly because he knew that was a friggin' LIE, and partly because his nose was bleeding. Terrific. Miho looked at him worriedly.

"Are you all right, Marik-san? Should Miho-chan go fetch the nurse?"

"Good idea, Miho. Take Marik down to the nurse," the teacher said. "And I'd probably have your parents take you to a doctor after school," he told Marik. "Just in case."

"Yeah, Marik responded, looking right at Bakura. He blinked, surprised. As Miho led him off the field, he shook his head. As best he could with a bloody nose, anyway. It must be his imagination playing tricks on him. Or maybe he had been hit a LOT harder than he thought. Either way, what he had seen in Bakura's eyes couldn't have been real. Marik had been expecting hatred, anger, or maybe frustration. He certainly wasn't expecting the somewhat apologetic, guilty look Bakura was giving him. "_Just what is going on in that guy's head? He hits me in the face and then looks sorry for it? What is he, bipolar?"_

* * *

**Wow, I had expected gym class to be one of the shortest chapters in the story. But then I heard Bakura's voice in my head saying, "I think that this should happen." And it was a good idea, so I wrote it down. Of course, when I wrote the original idea down, it was like, 11:30 at night, so I was probably just hallucinating hearing Bakura.**

**R&R, please!**


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: Happy birthday! ...To me. My birthday is this Friday, so I'm updating this story for you guys! ...It makes sense in my world, okay? And, yes, Bakura is in this chapter! (Finally.)**

**Thanks to: seira-g, YamiLuki, Spottedpaw13, Almond Luver (for reviewing twice), Fujimori Chikaru, The Awesome Alchemist, Kurozu-Elric, and redwolfJM! **

* * *

Bakura slammed his locker shut as the last bell of his first day at his new school rang.

"Bakura!" Ryou ran up to him. "What the hell happened?"

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about, Ryou," Bakura said.

"Don't take that tone with _me _Bakura! I heard about what happened during your P.E. class!"

"Oh? You'll have to refresh my memory, I'm afraid."

"Come ON, Bakura! Everyone's been talking about how the new kid who's been hanging out with Seto Kaiba threw the softball as hard as he could at Marik Ishtar!"

"Oh, yeah, that." Bakura nodded, acting as if the incident had completely slipped his mind. "I tripped and the ball slipped from my hand." Ryou glared at his older-by-four-minutes brother.

"That may work on the teachers, but it doesn't work on me," he said. Bakura fought the urge to roll his eyes, a rather childish habit he had yet to outgrow. He had to admit, his story DID seem a bit far-fetched, but it was actually the truth. Partly, anyway. He HAD tripped, but he probably would've been able to keep his grip on the ball. For some reason, he had wanted to hit Marik.

"It was an accident!" Bakura insisted, although he could tell that his brother didn't beleive it. Bakura turned around, ready to walk away when he felt Ryou's hand on his shoulder.

"Kura-kun," Ryou said, referring to the nickname he hadn't used since they were children. "You can't lie to me. I know what you're thinking." He put his hand to his forehead, fanning out his fingers and forming somewhat of an antennae. "Remember? We have twin telepathy**(1)**." At that, Bakura did roll his eyes, childish habit or not. He brushed Ryou's hand off his shoulder.

"I thought we outgrew that years ago, Ryou."

"True. But I remember years ago when we made a promise to each other."

"Promise? What promise?"

"You don't remember? We promised each other that we would always be considerate of each other's friends. even if we didn't like them. And, even though this may surprise you, Marik is my friend!" Bakura found himself unable to meet his brother's eyes.

"Well, if you like him so much, why don't you just ask him out?" Ryou crossed his arms.

"I was about to ask you the same thing about Kaiba," he said, a bit too loudly. Bakura clapped a hand over Ryou's mouth and looked around wildly. Luckily, they were alone in the hallway. Ryou pushed his older brother's arm away. "Why are you hanging out with him, anyway? I mean, if he knew that you-"

"Shut up!" Bakura hissed through clenched teeth. "It's just like that promise you said we made. It doesn't matter anymore. That was then, and this is now."

"Bakura..." Ryou's voice trailed off. He was looking at someone behind Bakura. Bakura turned to see Seto Kaiba, along with his cronies Weevil Underwood, Duke Devlin, Mako Tsunami, Leiko Sasaki, and Amaya Takahashi**(2)**. and Kaiba was..._smiling._Ryou stepped back. "I'll see you at home, Bakura," he muttered. He walked away. Kaiba started talking as soon as Ryou was out of earshot.

"What's his problem?"

"Uh, well...I guess he's just a kid stuck in a teenager's body. He was talking about a bunch of stuff that happened when we were kids," Bakura replied. He hated talking about his brother behind his back. Maybe it was because Ryou was just so innocent and friendly. Luckily, Kaiba dropped the subject and instead started talking about gym class.

"What you did today was awesome!" he said.

"Yes," Mako piped up. "I did not think you were so good a pitcher!" The small group began to laugh. Bakura halfheartedly joined in.

"Yeah...me neither."

"It's just a good thing the teacher believed that you tripped, dude," Amaya said. "Otherwise, you'd be in so much trouble right now."

"Oh, please, don't be so ridiculous," Kaiba said, smacking Amaya on the back of the head. Maybe it was just him, but Bakura didn't think it looked like a friendly hit. "I'm Seto-freakin'-Kaiba, for Pete's sake! As long as I was there to stick up for him, absolutely nothing would've happened to Bakura. You forget, I have that kind of power over people." Bakura was only half-listening to Kaiba's ranting, but the others seemed to be hanging onto his every word. "Hey, actually, how'd you think of something like that, anyway? I was just going to trip him as he was running the bases."

"Uh.." Bakura thought fast. Forcing a smirk onto his face, he said, "Well, we need some way to show him that we don't really need people like him around here, right?"

Kaiba grinned and slapped Bakura's shoulder. Once again, it didn't seem overly friendly.

"Bakura Touzoku, I think you're going to fit in just fine around here."

"Yeah..." Bakura suddenly felt rather uncomfortable. "I, uh, I gotta go." He turned and started down the hall, trying not to make it seem like he was hurrying. He didn't really mind Marik. In fact, he wasn't sure _what_it was that he was feeling, exactly. All he knew was this: Marik's face had just been too...flawless. Large amethyst eyes, light golden hair framing his perfect, caramel-colored skin. No zits, no freckled, no blemishes whatsoever. Bakura could hardly stand how...beautiful Marik had looked standing at home plate, the bat slung over one shoulder, watching with those innocent-looking eyes as Bakura pitched the ball.

Bakura hadn't been able to help himself. He felt that if he had looked at Marik for too much longer, he would have lost it entirely. He just _had_ to put some kind of flaw in the Egyptian boy's perfect, beautiful face.

* * *

**(1)- I cannot take credit for the "twin telepathy"bit. I borrowed that from The Suite Life of Zorc - I mean The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.**

**(2)- I also cannot take credit for Leiko Sasaki and Amaya Takahashi. I felt that Kaiba needed some more "friends" (like he's even got any) and I couldn't think of anyone from the original series (I've only watched about halfway through season 2, so I don't know all the characters.) I would have made up my own characters, but I didn't really feel like making up a YGO OC. So my cousin, Spottedpaw13, was kind enough to let me borrow a couple of her YGO OCs. In her story, however, they act absolutely nothing like they do in my story. **

**Aaaand once again, the chapter is too short. But don't say I didn't put a little effort into it! I sat there for fifteen minutes after writing it, trying to think of something else I could add. I couldn't think of anything, but I did try!**

**R&R, please! Seto Kaiba smiles when I don't get reviews (he doesn't like this story. Go figure.) And every time Kaiba smiles, a puppy dies. Please! Think of the puppies! Wait, he smiled twice in this chapter! Uh-oh.**


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: And here it is, the long-awaited chapter 6! (Well, not too long-awaited, but it's been a couple of days.) I hope no one's getting too bored with this story yet...things should start to kind of pick up in this chapter!**

**Thanks to: Spottedpaw13, The Awesome Alchemist, seira-g, YamiLuki, Fujimori Chikaru, Almond Luver, and sandydragon for reviewing!**

* * *

"Honestly, Marik, I don't know how these things keep happening to you! First there was the time when you were in seventh grade and you broke your nose and cracked your jaw falling down the stairs, and now this! Maybe you should start wearing protective gear to school." Mr. Ishtar chuckled behind the steering wheel.

"Uh-huh. Guess I'm just accident-prone," Marik replied, his voice sounding slightly nasal. The doctor had assured him that it hadn't been broken (again), but it would probably be sore for a few days. Meaning Marik would most likely be breathing through his mouth for a while.

Mr. Ishtar glanced at his son in the rearview mirror.

"Are you _sure_ this was an accident?"

Marik sighed. "Yes, for the hundredth time! The new kid was about to throw the ball and he tripped when he stepped forward. The ball slipped out of his hand and hit me in the face." Why was he trying to protect Bakura by lying for him? He knew it wasn't an accident, so why did he feel compelled to act like nothing was wrong?

* * *

"We're home."

"How'd it go? What did the doctor say?" Mrs. Ishtar asked.

"No damage. Marik's face is fine."

"That's funny, cuz it's killing me!" Malik cracked from the living room.

Ignoring his brother's childish comment, Marik wandered into the kitchen. He picked an apple out of the fruit dish and grabbed a small, sharp knife to slice it with.

He paused and stared at the knife in his hand, an idea beginning to form in his mind. Quietly, he put the apple back and headed to the upstairs bathroom.

He closed the door behind him, wishing that the lock on it worked. He looked at his reflection, trying to avoid looking at the purplish bruise that now covered most of his nose.

"Okay," Marik muttered. "First, I'm gonna try that self-motivation thing and see if that works." He took a deep breath.

"I'm smart. I'm kinda good-looking. I have a group of friend that would be there for me no matter what." _A really small group of friends. _He shook his head and tried again.

"I'm funny. I'm friendly. If more people just tried to get to know me.." _They'd just see the fag in me._ Marik was running out of good things to say about himself.

"Uh...my family cares about me...I, um, don't have any zits, most..._some_ of the people I meet accept the fact that I'm...gay..." He couldn't think about good things anymore. Just the torment he had been put through for the past two years.

The nasty notes shoved in his locker. "_Get out of town." "You don't belong here." "Go die faggit."_

Be tripped and pushed over in th hallways on the way to class. "_Why don't you watch where you're going?" "Are all homos this clutzy?"_

The whispers. "_Look, it's that guy." "Think he's got the hots for any of those losers he hangs out with?" "Ha! Probably!"_

Most of this torment came from Kaiba, but the rest came from the people who sided with him. There weren't too many, but there were enough. Enough to make Marik sick of it all. He could hardly stand it anymore. He gripped the knife tightly and held it against his wrist.

Marik looked back and forth between the knife and his wrist, hesitating. What if he accidentally cut a vein? What if he made the cut too deep and he couldn't stop the bleeding? Was it posssible to die simply by cutting himself?

Before he could change his mind, Marik quickly dragged the knife across his smooth, tan skin.

"A-" He bit down on his tongue to keep from crying out. It hadn't hurt very much, just enough to surprise him.

He looked down at his wrist, where a small amount of blood had begun to well up. Seeing his own blood made him feel queasy, but he gritted his teeth and pulled the blade across his wrist again.

A few minutes later, he set down the knife and surveyed his handiwork. Small, fresh cuts were visible along his arm, reaching about halfway to his elbow.

He turned on the water and thrust his bloody hand under it, washing away his evidence. A knock at the door made him jump.

"Marik? Are you almost finished in there?"

"I-I'll be out in a minute, Ishizu!"

Marik quickly grabbed the knife and slipped it into his pocket. He certainly didn't want to explain why it was covered with blood. His sister knocked again.

"Marik, I can hear the faucet running! I know you're just washing your hands!"

"Just a sec, sis!" Fumbling, Marik grabbed a box of Band-Aids and slipped them into his other pocket as the door opened. Quickly, Marik shut off the water and held his arm behind his back, praying that Ishizu wouldn't see the cuts.

"Do you mind, Marik? I need to take a shower so I can dry my hair before bed."

"Sorry, sis." Marik edged out of the bathroom and ran into his room.

He sank down on the bed and looked at his wrist again. A few of the cuts were still bleeding. He began to bandage them, thinking, "_It hurts. But not very much. Just enough to get my mind off of life for a while." _

**

* * *

**

Didn't see that coming, did ya? I didn't. (At least not when I first began the story...) If you're mad that I made Marik cut himself, please accept my profuse apologies!

**R&R, please. For the puppies.**


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: I'm updating this story today because for one thing, I am really bored right now and typing up this story is really fun, and for another thing, I'm going on vacation next week and I won't be able**** to update during that time. I'm sorry.**

**Thanks to: The Awesome Alchemist, Fujimori Chikaru, sandydragon, Spottedpaw13, PheonixHikaru, Almond Luver, and XxDragonEyexX for reviewing!**

* * *

The next day in history class, the teacher announced a new project.

"You and a partner - chosen by me - will be required to study something about the ancient Greeks and present it in an interesting way. It can be a poster, skit, slideshow, anything you want. I have already chosen who your partners are going to be."

Marik swallowed. Honda was in this class with him, but so was Bakura, not to mention three more of Kaiba's goons.

"_Please let me be paired with Honda, please let me be paired with Honda," _he chanted over and over in his mind.

"Hiroto Honda, you will be paired with..." the teacher paused, consulting his list. "Miho Nosaka."

"_Damn! Then who'd I get paired with...?"_

_"_Marik Ishtar, your partner will be...Bakura Touzoku."

At first, Marik was too stunned to comprehend what the teacher had just said. Then it sunk in.

"Shit..." he murmured, covering his face with his hands. The second person to hate him for virtually no reason...was now his history partner!

* * *

At least one person seemed to be happy with his partner.

"Miho Nosaka!" Honda exclaimed over and over again at the lunch table. "How lucky can a guy get?"

"A lot luckier than me, that's for sure," Marik responded bitterly.

"Oh, yeah...sorry that you got stuck with Bakura, Marik."

"Hey, maybe this is a good thing!" Anzu suggested. "Maybe once Bakura spends a bit of time with you, he'll realize what a nice guy you are!"

"That's right!" Yugi said. "Anyway, you probably fared better than Ryou with your partner."

"Why?"

"I'm partnered with your brother," Ryou explained. "Is he really as lazy as these guys keep telling me?"

"Please. Unless the ancient Greeks invented basketball, he won't have a clue what's going on," Jonouchi said.

"I suppose that teacher thinks he's clever, pairing all the twins up with each other," Marik said.

"Hey, are you okay? You seem sorta grumpy, Mary," Jonouchi said. If looks could kill, the look Marik gave Jono would have killed him in two seconds flat.

"Don't call me Mary!" Marik said through clenched teeth. "My name is Marik Ishtar and I would appreciate it if you called me by my real name!"

"Sorry, dude. It was just a joke," Jonouchi responded, surprised by the sudden outburst.

"He's right, Marik. You _are_ acting a bit - " Ryou broke off. "What happened to your arm?" Marik quickly put his arm under the table.

"Nothing. It's none of your business," he muttered.

"But it's covered with all those Band-Aids, and - "

"Just drop it!" Marik snapped. The lunch table fell silent, surprised at their friend's attitude. Jonouchi nervously cleared his throat.

"Marik...are you maybe PMSing?"

Marik grabbed something off his tray and threw it at Jonouchi. Luckily, it was just a roll, which bounced harmlessly off his face, but it was still unexpected.

"Marik...?" Yugi started nervously.

"I'm sick of it! Sick of the gay jokes, sick of the degrading nicknames - " Jono blushed and looked down. " - sick of being the center of torment for half the school!" Marik stood up. "I-I need to be alone for a while." He turned and walked away. One of his friends called to him, but he ignored it.

When he passed by the table where the basketball team usually sat, he fell. No, more likely he was tripped. A couple of the kids snickered.

"Have a nice _trip?"_

"Guys, really," Malik spoke up. "What are we, five? Can't you just leave my brother alone for once?" He stood and pulled Marik to his feet. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine!"

"You're not acting like it."

"Rough day. Don't wanna talk about it," Marik said shortly. It wasn't that he wasn't grateful to his twin, but did Malik _always _have to stick up for him and treat him like a little kid? The last thing he wanted was to feel like he had to depend on his brother for everything.

Marik walked quickly out of the cafeteria. He ducked into the boy's bathroom and headed for the sink. He looked at himself in the mirror; his face was flushed and he was breathing pretty hard. His blood pressure was probably through the roof.

Marik turned on the cold water and cupped his hands under it. As he splashed the water onto his face, he heard the door open and close. He ignored it, figuring it was either his brother or one of his friends, coming to demand that he tell them what was wrong.

"Hmph." Uh-oh. That voice was becoming all too familiar to him. Marik risked a look in the mirror. Sure enough, standing just a few feet behind him, was none other than Bakura Touzoku. Marik gulped.

"Uh, h-hey, Bakura," he said, trying to make his voice sound light. Bakura glowered at their reflections.

"Listen, Ishtar, the teacher may have made us partners, but don't think this changes anything. I'm not going to start hanging out with you and your pathetic friends or anything. The only place I'll agree to meet up with you at is the library, and only when our brothers get together to study. Understand?"

"Yeah, I understand." Bakura's eyes dropped to Marik's arm.

"What's that?" He grabbed Marik's wrist.

"Hey - !" Marik let out a startled yelp as Bakura ripped off one of the Band-Aids. Whoever said that the quicker you pull them off, the less it hurts was totally wrong.

"Well, it looks like the little fa...little Marik has gone emo on us. Isn't that _interesting?"_ He dropped Marik's wrist. "i won't tell anyone about this. But don't think for a second that I can't." Bakura turned and walked out of the bathroom, leaving behind a very confused Marik.

"_That's weird. He's not going to tell Kaiba? Maybe he's going to try and blackmail me? Oh, that's great. The one time I cut myself, one of my worst enemies is the one to find out!"_ Marik realized something else. "_Wait a second. He was about to call me a fag. I know he was. But he didn't. Why? Is he one of those people who don't like gay people, but don't like to use that word? Wow, he really _is_ bipolar."_

With a sigh, Marik left the bathroom and headed back to his lunch table.

"Hey, Marik. Feeling any better?" Honda greeted him. Marik nodded.

"Yeah, a little." He looked at Ryou. "Sorry I yelled at you."

"It's alright. We all have our days." Marik looked at Jonouchi.

"Sorry I threw my roll at you. You can eat it, if you want to."

"Okay," Jonouchi said agreeably, grabbing the roll from where it was still sitting on the table. Marik smiled, then looked down.

"It's just hard, being picked on because of who I am. I mean, it's not like I can help it. I just...lose it sometimes."

Ryou patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Marik. We understand."

"That's just it! You think you understand, but you don't! How can you possibly understand what it's like to be me?" Ryou gave a small half-smile.

"Okay, you're right. I don't completely understand. But I think I have a pretty good idea. In fact," he glanced over at where Bakura was sitting, with Kaiba and his "friends". "Bakura probably knows how you feel better than anyone else does."

Marik couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, now I _know_ you're crazy. There's no way that your brother could understand me at all. No offense, but he's really not the friendliest guy in school."

Ryou's face turned serious.

"I'm not supposed to talk about this," he started. "But I think that you deserve to know."

"Uh...know what?" Ryou looked back at his twin brother's table.

"Bakura was picked on a lot, too, at our old school. It got so bad that he made me swear on the life of my pet hamster not to tell anyone. Of course, that hamster's dead now, so I guess the promise is no longer binding anyway."

"Ryou, your point?" Marik was starting to grow impatient. Ryou stared at Marik; chocolate brown eyes meeting pale violet.

"He doesn't want me telling anyone this, but my brother...he's bisexual."

* * *

**Wow, what a place to leave you guys hanging, huh? Betcha didn't see that coming. (Okay, you probably did, but it's still awesome!) **

**Like I said, there will be no updates next week! My mom's laptop does not do very well with typing up fanfictions, and I sorta need a little break anyway! I write the chapters out ny hand before I type them up, to keep the updating steady (I've written up until chapter 12, and I've had the ending planned out since I first started this story) and I have a slight bit of writer's block, so maybe a vacation will help clear my head a little.**

**You know what's coming, say it with me, people: R&R, please!**


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: And I am back from vacation! After three days of doing virtually nothing but a heck of a lot of walking (boardwalks. Why do they have to involve walking?) and sightseeing (dolphins, wild horses, a museum with shrunken heads...) I'm back and ready to present the next chapter. Enjoy!**

__

**Thanks to: The Awesome Alchemist, Almond Luver, Fujimori Chikaru, sandydragon, Spottedpaw13, seira-g, xXI. Hate. TwilightXx , and redwolfJM for reviewing!**

* * *

_"He doesn't want me telling anyone this, but my brother...he's bisexual."_

Marik lay in bed as Ryou's words repeated through his head.

_"But it doesn't make any sense," _he thought. "_Why would he choose to hang out with the one person in the schol who hates people like...us instead of with people who would actually understand and accept him?"_ It felt odd to think of Bakura as someone like himself. As if Bakura didn't make him feel strange enough already...

Come to think of it, why _did_ he feel this way? What exactly _was_ it that he felt for Bakura? From the moment he had first laid eyes on the white-haired boy, butterflies seemed to have taken up residence in Marik's stomach. Every time he even thought about that crown of silky white hair atop Bakura's head, Marik had a yearning to run his fingers through it, to bury his face in it. (It certainly didn't help that Bakura happened to be in quite a few of Marik's classes, either.)

Their brief encounter in the bathroom that day had only seemed to increase Marik's feelings. The second Bakura had touched his wrist, a firey desire had coursed through Marik, burning him from the inside. He had wanted to throw his arms around Bakura, to have Bakura hold him, to just forget everything that had happened to him since he had "come out of the closet."

Marik could only recall one time that he'd had feelings similar to the ones he had right now: when he'd had a crush on Yami Muto back in the seventh grade. Only this time, the feelings were much, much more powerful.

"Oh, hell no!" Marik groaned in realization. Of all people, his stupid adolescent hormones had chosen _Bakura?_! How did that make any sense? Ryou was a lot friendlier, and he actually hung out with Marik and the others. So why Bakura?

All at once, the memory of his dream came crashing down on him. That was it? That was the reason that Marik's hormones had gone haywire? All because of a dream he had?

"It was just a dream," Marik said aloud. "Dreams don't mean anything. They're fine when I close my eyes, but when I open them again, they're gone! They're not real!" Besides, the boy in his dreams couldn't have been Bakura. Could he? Marik had been having that dream for weeks before Ryou and Bakura had come to Domino City High. It had to be a coincidence. Right?

A knock on the door snapped Marik out of his thoughts. Malik poked his head in.

"Hey, I just got a text from Ryou. He and Bakura are heading to the library to study for the history project and he wants to know if we can meet them there."

Marik groaned inwardly. He knew that he and Bakura would have to meet up at some point, but why did it have to be today? There was no way Marik would be able to focus in the ancient Greeks with everything else going on in his head.

"Okay, I'm coming." He sat up. Malik looked at him.

"Hey, are you okay? You ran in here as soon as we got home from school. Actually, you've been acting really weird for the past few days, now that I think about it."

"Uh..." Marik hesitated. He trusted his twin, more than his friends, actually, but he didn't feel comfortable talking about hormone problems and he was quite certain that Malik wouldn't feel comfortable hearing about them. "I'm fine. It's just...school, I guess. The science test from a few days ago, the pop quiz in math today that I wasn't ready for, and now this history project...it's pretty stressful, especially for me." He got a blank stare from his brother in return.

"Yeah...okay, sure, if you say so." From the tone of his voice, it was pretty obvious that Malik didn't believe Marik's fib, but didn't want to pry. "Listen Marik, I'll admit that I'm no Dr. Phil, so I'm not too good at talking about problems and stuff, but you know that you can talk to me about anything, right? If you want to, that is."

Marik blinked. Malik didn't usually talk like that. He usually tried to keep up a "tough guy" appearance, especially at school.

"Uh, yeah, Malik. Whatever you say."

"I just wanted to make sure you know that. Come on, we'd better get going."

"Malik?"

"What?"

"Since I can talk to you about anything, I just wanted to say that you are being way too nice right now," Marik said, smiling. Malik crossed his arms, but it was obvious that he was trying not to smile.

"Well, excuuuuuuuuuse me, Princess!"

"There, that's more like my older brother!" Marik laughed.

"Yeah, whatever. Come on, runt, Ryou and Bakura are probably at the library by now."

"Okay, I'm coming." _But how will I be able to handle having Bakura for a partner?_

* * *

**Aw, brotherly love! I don't know why I make Malik such a nice guy. It's way out of character for him. But, he's one of my favorite characters (third after Marik and Bakura) so I don't want him to be a complete jerk like he is in the anime.**

**R&R, please. It feeds the plot bunnies.**


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: Well, now I'm depressed. I just found out that my art teacher died of cancer. But, I'm not going to be depressing while writing this chapter, partly because it was written by hand first, but mostly because this is a fun chapter and I don't wanna be all depressed for it!**

**Thanks to: Fujimori Chikaru, seira-g, J bear, Dinah Nuzzler, The Awesome Alchemist, Almond Luver, sandydragon, and Spottedpaw13 for reviewing!**

* * *

"Well, there's Ryou," Malik said as the Ishtar twins walked into the public library. "But where's Bakura?" The white-haired boy was sitting at a table alone.

"Maybe he didn't want to come," Marik suggested, trying to keep the hopeful note out of his voice.

"Maybe. Come on." They made their way over to the table where Ryou was sitting. "Hey, Ryou."

"Oh, hey, Malik, Marik." Ryou smiled. "I'm glad you showed up. I don't understand this ancient Greek stuff at all. I always get the Greeks and Romans confused."

"Same here, so it looks like we're screwed. Unless..." Malik gave his brother a pleading look. "Marik would be kind enough to help us?"

"No."

"But-"

"Sorry, you're on your own, bro.'

"Shhh!" The librarian hissed from her desk. Marik rolled his eyes. He hadn't even been talking that loud. The librarian was a friend of Kaiba's father, and she followed pretty much the same principals as him. Meaning she, like so many others in this town, hated Marik.

"Say, Ryou, where's your brother?" Malik asked. "I thought he was coming with you."

"Oh, he went over there." Ryou pointed towards the other end of the library. "He said something about how he didn't want me distracting him while he studied."

"More likely he doesn't want you guys sticking up for me while he cuts down my self-esteem inch by inch. Just like Kaiba," Marik said. He had meant it as a joke, but it actually hit pretty close to home.

"Shhh!" Marik sighed.

"_I _hate_ that woman!" _he thought.

"My brother is nothing like Seto Kaiba!" Ryou insisted. "Trust me."

"I wish I could just take your word for it, but he hasn't exactly been warming up to me, in case you haven't noticed," Marik pointed out.

"Well, why don't you just go study with Bakura?" Ryou suggested. "Maybe if you guys spend more time together, it'll give him the chance to warm up to you, and see what a nice guy you really are."

"Yeah, okay." Marik stood up. _"Like that'll ever happen." _

He picked up his textbook, which he had brought with him, and walked across the library to wear Bakura was sitting.

"Hey, Bakura! What's up?" The white-haired teenager said nothing in reply, he simply glared at Marik. Marik faltered.

"I - er - I just wanted to know if you wanted to study a bit. With me, that is, since you're already studying. I mean, we are partners and everything, so..." God, this was way too awkward for Marik's liking. He stood there, waiting for Bakura's response. Silence, then a grumble.

"Sit down. Just because I have to work with you doesn't mean I'm going to risk failing."

Marik bit his tongue to keep from yelling that HE happened to be the top history student, and the only one to get an A on the last test. Instead, he pulled out a chair and sat down next to Bakura.

Bakura was holding his book flat with one hand and was taking notes with the other. Marik had forgotten to bring something to take notes with (he preferred to get his notes from online sources, anyway), so he just opened his book and began to skim through it, resting his chin on his hands.

They sat in silence for a few moments, save for the scratching of Bakura's pen as he jotted down note after note. Marik could barely pay attention to what he was reading. He had never been so close to Bakura before...

He turned the page of his book and set his hand down. He didn't notice that Bakura had stopped writing until he heard a noise.

"Ahem." Marik looked up.

"What?" His heart started pounding as Bakura stared at him for a few seconds, then lowered his eyes to the table. Marik followed his gaze and his breath caught in his throat. When he had put his hand down, he thought he had put it on the table. But, in actuality, Marik had set his hand right on top of Bakura's free hand, the one he was using to keep his book open.

Under the glare of the new boy, Marik jerked his hand away.

"I, uh...oh, jeez! I'm sorry, I didn't even...if I had realized...ugh, I'm such an idiot!"

"Shhh!" That librarian was seriously starting to get on Marik's nerves, and she really wasn't helping his self-esteem issues, either.

Bakura glared for a few seconds more, then stood up.

"I think it's time for me to leave. I just need to get my brother." He walked away, not even bothering to glance back at a very embarrassed Marik Ishtar. Marik groaned and put his head down on the table top.

"_Dammit!"_ he thought. _"I can't believe I just did that! He's probably gonna tell Kaiba and I'll become the laughing stock of the school. Again. Why do I even feel this way about Bakura? He obviously hates me, so why...why do I feel so attracted to him?"_

"Marik!" It was Malik. "I just got a text from Odion. He says we're late for dinner. Knowing Odion, it could be a trick, but it might not be. You never know with him."

"Oh. Yeah. Coming." Marik stood up and sighed.

"Shhh!"

"Oh, can it, lady!" he snapped. As he walked over to his twin brother, he thought, "_Freshman year sucks...especially when you're gay with raging hormones and half the town is against you!"_

* * *

**This is one of my favorite chapters. I probably say that a lot, but I can't help it. To be honest, I hate most of my chapters because of so much Marik-abuse. But, in my world, every story needs a bit of sexual tension between main characters. And annoying librarians. But we're never gonna see her again. And that's just my opinion. I don't usually have very good ones. Because in my opinion, the world should be made of chocolate. It sounds nice, but it would get all melty on hot days and then everything would be a mess. Okay, done ranting. Just ignore this author's note, because I know that they bug people at times.**

**R&R, please!**


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N: The good news is I don't hvae to dogsit today, so I'm updating this much earlier than I had anticipated. The bad news is, I'm not dogsittting today, so I have no excuse not to go to my cousin's birthday party. (Not you, Spottedpaw13, the cousin's that annoy me. From my dad's side of the family.)**

**Thanks: xXI. Hate. TwilightXx, seira-g, Fujimori Chikaru, sandydragon, Spottedpaw13, redwolfJM, Dinah Nuzzler, The Awesome Alchemist, and MaskYourSmile for reviewing!**

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Bakura flopped down onto his bed. He stared up at the ceiling and groaned.

"Stupid library. Stupid project. Stupid teacher, putting me and Marik together. I wish we had never moved!" He shook his head. "No, I'm glad we moved. Thrilled! The only ones who know my secret are me, Ryou, and Mom. If Dad ever came around, he might know, but he doesn't give a crap about us, so he's never gonna know."

Bakura roled over and buried his face in his pillow.

"_When did my life become a hellhole? The summer before seventh grade, I think. That's when Dad left, I found out I was bi, I got mixed up with that gang..."_

"Bakura?" He glanced up. His twin was standing in the door.

"What?"

"Um...I just wanted to know if you wanted to play some cards or something..."

"That's kid stuff, Ryou. Don't bother me with that stuff right now. I'm sorta having a mid-life crisis over here." Ryou blinked.

"Kura-kun, you're sixteen."

"Your point being?" Bakura buried his face into the pillow again. "Just go away, Ryou!"

"Nice try, but you can't send me out of my own room."

Not for the first time, Bakura wished for his own room. If his bastard of a father ever bothered to send any money, maybe they could afford more than a tiny, two-bedroom apartment while Bakura's mother worked at a local fast-food resteraunt for minimum wage.

Ryou sat on the edge of Bakura's bed.

"What's wrong?"

"Life. I don't wanna talk about it."

"It might make you feel better if you talk about it, though."

"No!"

"Well, maybe if you play some cards, it'll take your mind off of it..."

"I don't want to play any friggin' card games!" Bakura yelled. "Why don't you just leave me alone and go play with one of your stupid little friends?" Ryou was taken aback. Then he narrowed his eyes.

"You know, I seem to remember a time when we told each other everything because we trusted each other. I like to call it: _last month!_"

"Oh, cry me a river, build a bridge and jump off it!"

"Bakura! If you'd just tell me what the problem is, maybe I can help you a little!"

"Yeah, I really need my whiny, little goody-two-shoes brither telling me how to run my life!"

'I'm not trying to tell you how to run your life! I'm just trying to help 'cuz that's what brothers do for each other!" It was strange hearing Ryou yell. Heck, it was strange for the two of them to fight in the first place, but Bakura could care less right about now.

As the brothers glared at each other, they both realized something. A war was starting. Lines were being drawn and they were on different sides for the first time in their lives. A door opened in their apartment.

"Boys, I'm home!" Ryou turned on his heel and stormed out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

"Mom, I'm going out for a while." Bakura heard the front door close.

"Stupid Ryou. I don't need any of his help. I don't need him, or any of his stupid friends. Especially Marik Ishtar!" He sighed. "...Why can't I make myself believe that? Well, they wouldn't accept me anyways! If they knew anything about my past...NO! That's over! Nobody has to know about that! Not Ryou's friends...Why do I even CARE about what they think? And not the so-called 'friends' I have now!"

Bakura wondered if he'd ever be able to accept Seto Kaiba and his cronies as actual friends. Probably not, but by hanging with them, at least he managed to keep any possible suspicion away.

Bakura closed his eyes, but, like it always did when he was trying to forget, that one memory came back to him...

**(Flashback)**

"It's simple, dude. All ya gotta do is walk in, grab a couple DVDs, and walk out. It's a piece of cake!"

"I'm not sure..."

"I didn't take ya for a wuss," the first boy sneered. "C'mon, it's easy! We hit this place all the time, no one's gonna catch ya! Even if they do, we're behind ya all the way. Right, guys?" The other boys snickered in a way that Bakura wasn't entirely sure he liked. But he wanted to fit in, so...

"All right, I'll do it," he agreed. The leader of the group of boys slapped him on the back.

"That's what I like to hear! Now, go get 'em!"

The rest of the gang started adding their two cents.

"Make sure you get one that's rated R!"

"Think he'll actually be able to do it?"

"Naw, look at 'im! He's shakin' like a leaf!" Laughter.

Bakura wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans and walked into the store. It was small, and was not very crowded. No one else was in the DVD section. Bakura's heart started pumping at a faster rate than usual. He knew that this was a bad idea. He should just turn around and leave. Go home and play chess with Ryou, both of them pretending that they didn't hear their parent's yelling.

He should just walk away.

He reached out and picked a DVD of the shelves at random. He glanced down the aisle, making sure no one saw him, and tucked it into his jacket.

Casually, he stuck his hands in his pockets, walking to the door.

"_I did it!_" he thought. "_Just a few more steps and I'm home free. Maybe those guys will accept me into their gang now..." _But was that really what he wanted?

Before he had time to ponder this, he felt a grip of iron on his shoulder.

"Not so fast, son," came a deep voice. "What do you have under that jacket of yours?"

Bakura looked up. A man with blond hair, sunglasses and a bandanna decorated to look like the American flag was standing there. Bakura fought down panic.

_"Keep calm,"_ he thought. "_Play it casual."_ He shrugged one shoulder carelessly, forcing himself to relax.

"Nothing," he said. "Not that it's any of your business." The man obviously wasn't buying it. He walked over to a checkout desk, dragging Bakura with him.

"I'd like to see a manager, please," he said to the girl at the register. She looked surprised.

"Is...is there a problem?" she asked.

"There might be."

The girl picked up a microphone.

"Mr. Pegasus, could you come down to register one, please?"

A few moments later, a tall man with long, silver hair approached the counter.

"What seems to be the trouble here?" he asked. Bakura felt himself pushed forward.

"I think you'd better ask this kid what he's got under his jacket," the man said, adjusting his sunglasses.

The manager - Pegasus - looked at Bakura.

"Well?"

Bakura was caught. He knew it was no good denying it. Looking down at the floor, he reached into his jacket and slowly withdrew the DVD. He held it out to Pegasus, who took it.

"What's your name?" the silver-haired man asked, looking sternly at the white-haired teenager.

"Bakura Touzoku, sir," came the mumbled response.

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

"I assume it's your first time doing something like this?"

Bakura nodded, still not making eye contact. Pegasus sighed. He didn't seem very angry, just...disappointed.

"You realize that I will have to call the police."

THAT got Bakura. He jerked his head up, eyes wide. Not the police! His family already had enough problems! His parents were bound to split any day now, and his brother was already picked on enough in school!

"If I may step in, sir." It was the man who had caught Bakura. "Since it's the first time he's tried a stunt like this, maybe you don't have to call the police. He probably wouldn't get much more than a warning, anyway." Pegasus looked at the man, raising an eyebrow skeptically at the man's bandanna, sunglasses and leather vest.

"And you are...?"

"Keith Howard."

"Mr. Howard, I thank you for catching this boy. And ordinarily, I would agree with you, but there has been a small chain of thefts in this store over the last few weeks. I, quite personally, am rather sick of it. I'm not quite sure if I want to risk letting this boy go, seeing as he is the first person who has been caught in the act."

"I-I know who's been robbing your store, sir," Bakura spoke up. "They should still be outside," he continued as both men turned to look at him.

"All right. Why don't you show us? But if you try to run I will most definitely be calling the police," Pegasus warned.

Bakura led the two men out of the store, hoping against hope. But, as he expected, the gang of boys was gone. The odd cigarette littering hte sidewalk was the only proof that they had been here at all.

_"Those creeps_!" Bakura thought_. "They probably split the minute I went in!"_

Absentmindedly, he rubbed his wrists, already able to feel the cold metal of handcuff biting into them. Keith noticed his fidgeting.

"Are you okay, kid?"

Bakura shook his head. How could he be okay at a time like this? Keith chuckled.

"Hey, don't worry. Believe it or not, I once tried to lift a couple things from a convinience store when I was your age." Bakura eyed the blond-haired man. He didn't find it very hard to believe.

"But, I was also caught just before I left. You might say that's when I turned away from a life of crime." As he talked, he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a wallet. He opened it and Bakura's breath caught at the sight of a shining police badge. "That's right, Officer Keith Howard, at your service."

Bakura couldn't believe his horrible luck. He hadn't even wanted to steal in the first place and he ended up being busted by a cop? With his leather vest, dark sunglasses, and American flag-patterned bandanna, this guy really didn't seem the police officer type.

Keith - _Officer_ Keith - turned to Pegasus.

"So you see, there's really no need for you to call the police anyway. Like I said, he would get a warning and there's a possibility of a criminal record but considering it's his first offense, I wouldn't be too certain about that."

"Hmm." Pegasus fixed Bakura with a hard stare. "Do I have your word that you will never attempt something like this again?"

Bakura's hopes lifted. He nodded earnestly.

"Alright, I suppose I don't have to call the police. However..." Bakura cringed. Not the however! Anything but the however! "I WILL be calling your parents."

Keith smiled kindly at Bakura.

"Well, it's not so bad, kid. What's the worst your parents could do, other than ground you?"

Bakura couldn't find the words for his response. His father would be ten times as bad as the police, especially if he had been drinking.

He had either taken to long to respond or had tensed visibly, because the strange police officer reached out and shook Bakura, very gently.

"Hey, you okay, kid?" Bakura nodded and Keith reached into his pocket. "Here." He held a small paper out to the white-haired teen. "My card. If you ever need any help from the law, just give me a call. But I'd better not get a call saying you've been arrested!" Keith laughed. "See ya around, kid." He turned and walked down the sidewalk.

"Now, then," Pegasus (Bakura had almost forgotten he was still standing there) said. "You said your name is Bakura Touzoku, correct?"

**(End Flashback)**

The rest Bakura preferred to forget. Just as he had expected, his father had been drinking again and had beaten him. Normally, Bakura was glad to take the beatings, because afterwards his father usually left Ryou and their mother alone. As the oldest son, Bakura felt it was his duty to protect them as best he could.

Eventually, their father had gotten sick of them and had run off with some slut. He never called, never wrote, never sent money, never did anything to acknowledge that he even HAD sons. But Bakura didn't care. He could never actually consider that bastard a father, anyways.

The town where Bakura and Ryou used to live was very small. When Bakura found out he was bisexual, it wasn't long before the rest of the town knew it as well. This proved to be a problem. When Bakura tried to find a job to help his mother with the bills, not to mention Ryou's and his own college fund, no one had hired him. They would try to cover it up by saying he'd applied too late or didn't have the right experience, but Bakura knew the real reason no one would give him a job. No one had wanted to risk ruining their business by hiring a bisexual teenager.

"Friggin' homophobes," Bakura muttered. "Just like Seto Kaiba." But at least by hanging out with a creep like Kaiba, he'd have a better chance of finding a job. Kaiba did have a lot of influence in Domino City...

"It's more than a feeling (more than a feeling)  
When I hear that old song they used to play (more than a feeling)  
I begin dreaming (more than a feeling)  
'till I see Marianne walk away  
I see my Marianne walkin' away"

Bakura's cell phone snapped him out of his thoughts. He picked it up.

"_I really should change the ring tone on this...nah,"_ he thought as he answered. "Hello?"

"Bakura!" A nasally, somewhat familiar voice crackled over the phone. "It's Weevil. Kaiba gave me your number," he explained before Bakura had the chance to ask how the heck Weevil got his cell phone number.

"What do you want, Weevil?" Bakura sighed. He _so_ did not want to deal with this right now.

"You need to come to the school right away! We're meeting in the weight room," Weevil said. "Kaiba's called a meeting; he says it's time we got rid of Marik Ishtar once and for all?" Bakura felt his blood run cold.

"You don't mean we're going to kill him?" He tried to make it sound like a joke, but he wouldn't put it against Kaiba to try something like that...or get one of his goons to do it so he didn't have any blood on his hands.

"Of course we're not going to kill him! But we definitely don't want to see him around school ever again! Just get to the wieght room. Kaiba will explain everything then!"

* * *

**This chapter would've been up sooner, but I ended up going to my cousin's birthday after all. After having my glasses ripped off and my hair pulled by my cousin who's barely a year old (I couldn't stay mad at him, though, he's too adorable!) I went to my friend's house for a while and hung out with her. So, yeah, this took a while...I was actually going to post it yesterday. But better late than never!**

**R&R, please!**


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N: 11:30 at night, I should be asleep because I have to get up really early tomorrow, I can't sleep (mostly due to the fact that it's the middle of summer and there is no air in my room, even though I have two fans running), I have a computer in my room, I'm updating, dadgumit! (Yes, I say dadgumit. Deal with it!)**

**Thanks to: seira-g, sandydragon, Florence, Fujimori Chikaru, and The Awesome Alchemist for reviewing!**

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Bakura crinkled his nose in digustas he walked down the stairs leading to the school's basement. Who's brilliant idea had it been to put the weight room in the basement, anyway?

_"Does anyone ever clean down here?"_ Bakura thought, sidestepping a patch of mold growing on the floor. "_Why does Kaiba want us to meet _here_?"_ He knocked on the door of the weight room. It was answered by Duke Devlin, the school heartthrob and part of Kaiba's gang.

"About time you got here, Bakura."

"Nice to see you too, Duke." Duke stepped back and let Bakura enter the room, which stunk even worse than the rest of the basement.

Bakura sat on an old weight bench next to Amaya Takahashi and Kaiba began talking.

"Good, everyone's here. Now we can begin," he started. "We all agree that Marik Ishtar should not be allowed in this town, correct?"

There was a chorus of yeses.

"Good. Unfortunatly, I don't have enough power to make him leave down. However," he paused and looked at the teenagers assembled. "_together,_ we should be able to make sure that that fag is never allowed in this school again!"

The kids started cheering. Bakura halfheartedly joined in when Amaya shot him a look.

"When do we star, Kaiba?" Leiko asked excitedly.

"We iniciate the plan tomorrow. Now, who has classes with Ishtar?"

"Leiko, Amaya, Bakura, and I have history with him," Weevil said. "And then Leiko, Mako, and I are in his science class."

"I'm in his math class with you, Kaiba," Duke added. Kaiba nodded, seemingly satisfied, then turned to Bakura.

"What about you, Bakura? Are you in any of his classes other than history?"

"Um...well, I'm in his homeroom class," Bakura admitted.

"Good." Kaiba smiled. "That gives us most of the day to work with."

"So, what's the plan, Kaiba?" Amaya asked. The kid millionaire chuckled.

"Now what kind of friend would I be if I kept all the fun for myself? Use your imaginations and choose for yourselves what you want to do to Ishtar."

Almost immediatly, excited whispers filled the room.

"What do you think we should do?"

"My cousin has this pet rat..."

"Anyone know how much money Ishtar carries with him during the school day?"

But Bakura still felt rather confused.

"Hey, Kaiba? What exactly are we trying to accomplish here?" he asked. Quickly, he added, "I mean, I'm not saying we should go easy on him, but I don't quite think that tormenting him is going to make Marik change his mind about his sexual preferences."

"Oh, trust me, it's nothing like that. Even I know that being a fag is soemthing you're born wth. I just don't want to put up with seeing his stupid faggit face for the next four years. These are my golden years, and I don't intend to have him spoil them! Trust me, Bakura, one way or another, I'm going to see to it that Marik Ishtar is expelled from Domino City High School before freshman year is done!"

* * *

Marik sneezed. "_They say that means someone is talking about you. If you actually believe that stuff, anyway,"_ he thought as he placed a Band-Aid over one of his new cuts. He had meant for cutting to be a one-time thing, but it just felt so GOOD! All he had to do was focus on the physical pain, and it was actually pretty easy to forget that most of the people in his town wouldn't push him out of the way if he was about to be hit by a train.

Feeling bored, he wandered into his room and grabbed his cellphone, dialing the first number that popped into his head. There were a few rings and then-

"Hello?"

"Hey, Honda, it's Marik. Malik has basketball practice today, and I have nothing better to do, so I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out for a while."

"Oh...well, gee, Marik, I'd like to, but...remember how Miho Nosaka is my history partner?"

"Yeah...why?"

"Well, we were studying at her house yesterday, just sorta hanging out and talking and...well, I asked her if she wanted to go to the movies with me today."

Marik's blond eyebrows arched. "No kidding?"

"Well, I couldn't help it; it just kinda slipped out." Honda sounded embarrassed, yet excited. "And would you believe she said yes?"

"Huh. That's pretty cool, I suppose." Personally, Marik had never quite understood why his friend was so attracted to Miho. He felt that she was rather ditzy, and somewhat of an airhead. She might not even have realized that Honda was asking her out! Then again, Marik didn't like girls, so of course he wouldn't understand an attraction.

"Well, I'm happy for you," he said into the phone. "Good luck."

"Thanks. Oh, hey, Marik?"

"Yeah?"

"Sorry. I'd hang out if I could, but - "

"It's okay, I understand. Just have fun, okay?" Marik flipped his phone shut and sighed. He had always wondered when his friends would begin to give into their hormones, and it looked like Honda had started. Somehow, it made Marik feel rather left out, knowing that the chances that HE would ever be in a serious relationship were very slim indeed. Then he suddenly remembered what Ryou had told him about Bakura.

Odion poked his head into Marik's bedroom.

"Uh...are you okay?" he asked. Marik sat up from where he had rolled to the floor and wiped his eyes.

"Y-yeah. Just remembering something funny from school, that's all," he replied. Odion stared at the younger boy.

"Must've been one heck of a joke," he said, walking away.

"Oh, it's a _joke_, all right," Marik muttered. Even _picturing _himself as Bakura Touzoku's boyfriend was hilarious. Even if Bakura really was bi, Marik was pretty positive that there was no way that the white-haired boy would ever like Marik.

No matter how much Marik wanted him to.

"_Dammit!"_ he thought, climbing back onto his bed. "_Bakura Touzoku, why have I fallen so hard for you?"_

* * *

Bakura walked down the street, deep in thought.

"I can't do it," he muttered. "I can't. I don't want to do anything to kick him out of school, but I don't want to bring about any suspicion, either. I just can't do anything to hurt him. Gah, why do I care so much, anyways?" He paused at a crosswalk and waited for the light to change. He ran his hands through his white locks.

"_Dammit!" _he thought. "_Marik Ishtar, why have I fallen so hard for you?"_

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**Well, it's an okay chapter. Not my best, but not my worst. It only took me about an hour to type up, but my hair is sticking to my neck now because my fan is a piece of crap. I can't wait for my brother to leave for college. Forget taking over his room, I'm taking his fan!**

**R&R, please.**


	13. Chapter 12

**A/N: In honor of the new Yu-Gi-Oh abridged episode (which actually came out a few days ago) I am updating. Again. In this chapter, Kaiba and his monkeys (thanks for that, redwolfJM, I never thought of that one before) finally start their "evil" plan to get rid of Marik. Will they succeed? Will they fail? Read on to find out! (And now I'm sounding like an annoying advertisement. What is wrong with me?)**

**Thanks to: MaskYourSmile, seira-g, Fujimori Chikaru, The Awesome Alchemist, sandydragon, tamiki-kun, redwolfJM, PheonixHikaru, and ****kingdomheartsforevs (reviewed every chapter in one night!) ****for reviewing!**

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Marik woke up at 3:00 a.m. the next morning and was somehow unable to fall back asleep. On the plus side, he was not rudely awakened from a dream by Ke$ha, or Train (he actually didn't mind their songs too much, he just didn't like being woken up by them) or Justin Beiber. (Now _that_ person he hated. With every fiber of his being.) On the down side, it meant he would be super tired in school all day.

He lay in bed until it was time to get up. After getting dressed, he headed downstairs to the kitchen.

"Good morning, Marik. Would you like some cereal?" Mrs. Ishtar asked. Marik sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

"Sure, why not?" he responded. Malik gasped, feigning shock.

"Are my ears wrking correctly? Did Marik actually just ask for some _breakfast_? Are you feeling okay, bro?"

"I'm fine! I had a rough night and I figure some food might help me wake up a little! Sheesh, it's not like it's going to become a habit or anything."

"Well, good, because I was afraid that the apocolypse had come early."

Mark couldn't help but laugh. Aside from him actually eating breakfast, the morning seemed to be going pretty normally. So why did he get the feeling that today was going to be the worst day of his life?

* * *

During homeroom, Mark found it rather hard to concentrate. And it wasn't just because of his lack of sleep. He could feel Bakura's eyes burning into the back of his head. It was rather distracting. What did he want, anyway?

The bell rang and Marik stood up, glad to get away from Bakura's staring.

"Marik!" Or not. He turned.

"What do you want?" he snapped. Bakura looked down.

"There's-there's something you need to know..."

"What? That I'm a fag? That I should never have been allowed in this school?"

"No!" Bakura insisted, eyes wide. "Kaiba-"

"Just leave me alone!" Marik turned and started for his next class. Math. His worst subject, made even worse by the fact that both Duke and Kaiba were in that class with him.

Hoping against hope that the school would be suddenly struck by lightning before he got to math, he started down the stairs, since his homeroom was the second floor, and math was on the first.

"Hey, someone behind him said. Marik paused and turned, one foot on the stairs. Amaya Takahashi, the school goof, was standing behind him.

"What?" Marik asked. Amaya smirked.

"Shouldn't you let a superior go down the stairs first, Marik-kun?" He said this last part with so much false sweetness that Marik almost gagged.

"No way, Amaya. You're not superior to me just because you hang out with Kaiba." Amaya's smirk widened. Before Marik had time to react, Amaya reached out and shoved the Egyptian boy.

"Whoops," he said sarcastically as Marik teetered, trying in vain to regain his balance before tumbling down the stairs.

"Oof!" Marik landed at the bottom with a thud, banging his head on the floor. He sat up and rubbed his head, ears ringing, as most of the kids in the hallway laughed at his misfortune.

"Marik, are you alright?" Yugi came running over, kneeling to help his friend pick up his scattered papers.

"I'm fine," Marik replied as Amaya came down the stairs, looking rather triumphant. Yugi glared at Amaya.

"What'd you do that for? He could've broken an arm or something!"

"Me?" Amaya put a hand on his chest, feigning innocence. "I didn't do anything. Marik just tripped and fell. That's all." Amaya smirked at Marik one more time before heading off to his next class. Yugi scowled and shook his head.

"Come on, Marik," he said. "We'll be late for math."

* * *

Yugi and Marik managed to make it into the math room just as the bell rang. The teacher glanced at them.

"Thank you for joining us today, Mr. Muto, Mr. Ishtar," she said sternly. The two boys blushed and stared to their seats. However, poor Marik was tripped by Kaiba, causing him to drop his stuff for a second time that day. The teacher sighed.

"Please try to be careful, Mr. Ishtar."

"S-sorry." Marik started to pick up his papers.

"Here," Duke Devlin stood up. "Let me help you that, Marik, old pal." Marik's instincts instantly sent out warning signals. Duke was up to something. One of Kaiba's goons would _never_help Marik Ishtar willingly in the same room as Seto Kaiba.

"Uh...thanks?" Marik took the papers from Duke. _Just what is this guy up to?_

"Now, if everyone will take out last night's homework, I will collect it," the teacher said.

Marik felt proud; he had done all of his math homework last night, and Ishizu had only helped him out a little! Well, with about four or five problems out of ten, anyway, but Marik was just happy that he had completed the whole assignment done! But...where _was_ it?

"Is there a problem, Mr. Ishtar?" The teacher was standing next to Marik's desk, waiting for his homework.

"N-no, there's no problem. It should be right here..." Marik flipped through his papers, dug through his binder. He looked up at the teacher. "I _swear_I did it! And I put it in my notebook! I don't know..." he trailed off. He knew what had happened to his homework now. Duke. Duke must have stolen it when he "helped" Marik.

The teacher sighed. "Oh, it's fine, Mr. Ishtar. I'll expect it first thing tomorrow." Marik nodded.

"_Great," _he thought. "_What else could go wrong today?_"

* * *

History class. Marik's second least favorite class. At least he only had to deal with Weevil, Amaya, Leiko, and Bakura. But then again, he had to deal with Weevil, Amaya, Leiko, _and_Bakura!

Marik walked into the classroom. As usual, the teacher was not there. He never was, for at least the first five minutes of each class**(1)**. No one knew where he went between classes, and no one really cared.

Weevil, Amaya and Leiko were all hanging around Leiko's desk. They glanced over at Marik, then turned away, laughing. Not a good sign, but they might have just been doing it to irk him, too.

Bakura came into the classroom, followed shortly by Honda and Miho. Honda was saying, "Where I come from, we believe all kinds of things that aren't true. We call it 'history'."**(2)**

Marik smiled and shook his head. Honda never failed to say that line every time the history teacher wasn't around, but one of these days he was going to get busted for it.

In a few minutes, the rest of the class was in the room and seated. All they needed now was the teacher. Five minutes later, he came running in.

"There you are!" he said, as if he had been searching the whole school for his class, but had never thought to check his own classroom. The teacher glanced at his lesson plan and cleared his throat. "Could you all please take out your textbooks and turn to page 251?"

Marik was pulling his textbook out of his desk when a piercing shriek cut through the air. Everyone immediately turned towards the noise. Leiko was standing, pointing a shaky finger at her desk.

"H-h-h-how did _that_thing get in my desk?" she cried. As everyone watched, a fat, gray rat stuck it's head out of Leiko's desk. Whiskers twitching, it crawled onto the chair and dropped onto the floor. Half the class was sent into hysterics. Screaming, they jumped out of their seats, scrambling to get away from the offending creature.

"Everyone remain calm!" the teacher ordered. He quickly went to the supply closet and pulled out a shoebox. He walked quietly up behind the rat (which seemed _very_interested by whatever was in Miho's bag) and quickly brought the box down, effectively trapping the rodent. It scratched against the sides of the box, trying to escape, as the teacher went to the phone.

"Yes, could you please send a custodian down to my classroom? Thank you." He hung up the phone and turned to his students, who were beginning to return to their seats.

"Who did this?" he said. "There is no way that animal could have gotten into this room, much less into a student's _desk_, unless someone purposely brought it in." The class was silent. "Well?" Someone slowly raised their hand. "Yes, Mr. Underwood?"

"Well, sir, I didn't want to say this at first, but..." Weevil cleared his throat and glanced around. It may have seemed like he was embarrassed or nervous, but he was actually checking to make sure that he had everyone's attention. "I-I did see Marik hanging around Leiko's desk earlier."

"What?" Marik cried.

"It's true! I was with him!" Amaya spoke up. "We asked Marik what he was doing, and he said that Leiko had let him borrow some notes and he was returning them."

"I never let him borrow any notes!" Leiko broke in. The three of them may be creeps, but they were pretty good actors.

"That's a lie!" Marik said. "I didn't even get to class until after they were already here!"

"That's right, teach," Honda added. "My buddy Marik wouldn't do something like that!"

"Honda-kun is right, sensei!" Much to Marik's surprise, Miho also jumped to his defence. Maybe she wasn't as much of an airhead as he had thought... "Marik is much to nice of a person to do something this cruel!" Nope, she was still an airhead. "Someone must have snuck in earlier and put the rat in Leiko-san's desk!"

"Well, it's your word against ours!" Weevil shot back. "We actually have a believable story, while you are just going on how 'nice' Marik acts!"

The teacher looked back and forth between the opposing children. A few other students began to mutter their two cents:

"You people are crazy. Marik's allergic to animals, why would he put a rat in someone's desk?"

"Where would he even get a rat? His house isn't that old."

"Ever heard of a garbage dump, dummy?"

"Yeah, I can definitely see him doing something like that."

"Wow, history has never been this much fun before!"

The teacher took a deep breath and let it out.

"Well, I suppose that there is no actual way of knowing who did this..." he began. Marik, Honda and Miho let out a sigh of relief. "But I _will_ be calling the principal and informing him of this incident. And this goes for everyone," he looked around at all the students. "I do not want to hear of anything like this happening ever again."

* * *

Marik trekked through the hallway, heading to science, which was actually one of his favorite classes. Sure he had Weevil, Mako and Duke, but he also had his brother Malik, not to mention Anzu and Yugi's brother Yami, who had been held back in this class.

"Hey, not so fast." Mako stood from where he had been leaning against the lockers and blocked Marik's path. "It's ten bucks to pass." Marik sighed.

"I don't have ten dollars. Let me by or we'll both be late to class, Mako."

"Don't call me by my name. It's Mr. Tsunami to you, fag. I happen to be getting out of school early, anyway, so it really doesn't matter if I am late. I do not believe it would do you much good, however. Now, pay up!"

"Hey, Marik!" Mako scowled at the person approaching.

"You got lucky this time, Ishtar. But just wait until you see what else we've got planned for you." Mako turned and walked away.

"Marik!" Mai Kujaku ran up to him. She glanced at Mako's retreating form. "Was he giving you a hard time."

"Just forget about it." _Why is the captain of the cheerleading team talking to me? She's only ever said 'hi' to me once or twice._ "So, what's up?"

"Well, I got paired with your pal Jonouchi for the history project and I was just wondering..." Was Marik seeing things, or was Mai actually _blushing_? "Well, do you happen to have his cell phone number? I - er - I keep forgetting to ask him for it." Yes, she was definitely blushing.

"Uh, sure, Mai. Here," Marik scrawled Jono's number on a piece of scrap paper. He knew that Jonouchi liked Mai, and now she seemed to be warming up to him as well. That was just _great_. First it was Honda, now Jonouchi. "_That's two friends down,"_ he thought, handing Mai the paper. "_Who's next?"_

* * *

Marik sat down at the lunch table with a heavy groan. Ryou looked at him.

"You look like a cat just threw up all over your math homework. What's wrong?"

"Well, Duke stole my homework in math class, Weevil, Amaya, and Leiko planted a rat in Leiko's desk and accused me, thanks to Mako I was late to science, and then Weevil and Duke released the lab mice in the science room and I got blamed, so now I have a detention. Nothing's wrong, nothing at all." Marik said this last part with such biting sarcasm that Ryou winced.

"Well, it could always be worse," he said.

"How?"

Before Ryou could respond, he was interrupted. "Hey, guys!" Honda walked over to the table, followed by Miho. "What's up?"

"Science class was awesome!" Anzu exclaimed. Marik stared at her as if she had grown another head.

"Which science class were _you_ in, because I know we can't be thinking of the same one," he said. "Remember, those creeps blamed _me_ for letting the lab mice go and the teacher believed them! Thanks to them, I have a detention!"

"Yeah, but Yami was my lab partner!" Anzu giggled excitedly. Yugi frowned.

"Anzu, my brother had a girlfriend, you know. Mana," he said.

"I know, but you can't blame me for hoping, Yugi. Your brother is _dreamy_! He's so tall, and strong, and handsome..." Anzu sighed.

"His feet smell," Yugi muttered, staring at his mashed potatoes as if he'd love to cram them down his brother's throat. It was no secret that Yugi liked Anzu, but she only had eyes for Yami.

Marik glanced around the table. Miho was talking to Honda (something about a new outfit she had just bought) and he was gazing at her hanging onto her every word. Jonouchi was oblivious to everything except his cell phone, where he and Mai were texting back and forth. Apparently, Mai hadn't wasted any time after Marik gave her Jonouchi's number. Yugi was trying to talk to Anzu, but it was obvious that her mind was stuck on planet Yami.

Marik couldn't help but feel a bit hurt and left out. Kaiba and his gang were up to _something_(their torment had never been this bad before) and to Marik it seemed like his friends didn't even care! They seemed more focused on their hormones than on the fact that Marik was in trouble. Kaiba had been right, Marik's friends _were_ abandoning him. Just not in the way he expected.

"Marik, where are you going?" Ryou asked.

"Uh, I left something in my locker. I need to go get it," Marik mumbled. It didn't sound very believable, but it really didn't matter, since Ryou was the only one who noticed that Marik had left.

Marik wandered around the upstairs hallway. All of the teachers and students were in the cafeteria so the hallways were completely empty. Marik didn't care. He needed some time to think, and it was easier to do alone. Unfortunately, he wasn't alone for long.

He heard a dark chuckle from behind him. He turned.

"Who's there?"

Seto Kaiba stepped out from an empty classroom, followed by Bakura. Kaiba smirked at Marik.

"Well, well, well," he said. "If it isn't my favorite little fag, still in school after all that's happened today. Looks like I'll have to take matters into my own hands." Marik took a step backwards.

"J-just back off, Kaiba!" he warned. "I don't know what you're up to, but my friends will-"

"Oh? And just where are your friends now? Still in the lunchroom, I assume."

"You're just jealous that I actually have _real_friends!" Marik burst out. "Not a group of thugs who just listen to you because they're scared of you!" Kaiba's eyes narrowed.

"You'll regret that, Ishtar." Kaiba shoved the Egyptian boy, who fell to the floor. Marik scrambled up and tried to run, but before he could move, Kaiba pinned his arms behind his back.

"Bakura," he spoke to the white-haired boy, who had been watching in silence with wide eyes. "Open my locker for me."

"Um...what's in you locker?"

"Nothing. _Yet._" Kaiba gave his combination to Bakura and he reluctantly opened the locker. Kaiba turned Marik towards it. "We'll let you out in a day or two, Ishtar," he said with a laugh. Realizing what Kaiba was about to do, Marik struggled to free his arms. But Kaiba was stronger. Marik yelled as he was shoved into the small space and the door was slammed shut. Marik put his hands on the walls of his small, metal prison, his breath coming out in short gasps.

_"Why do I have to be claustrophobic?"_ he thought. "_Why couldn't I be afraid of heights instead?"_He could faintly hear Bakura and Kaiba talking.

"Think he's got enough air in there?"

"Ha! Who cares? The fewer people like him around, the better."

"I just don't feel right about this, man. I'm letting him out."

"Cool it! Monitor alert!"

"What are you boys doing up here?" A hall monitor! Marik was not one to waste an opportunity like this. He began banging on the locker door.

"Let me out of here!" he yelled.

"What the-?" He heard the hall monitor put a key in the lock and his spirits rose. The door opened and he was free!

"What on earth?" The hall moniter looked at the three boys. "Just _what_ is going on here?"

"They shoved me in the locker!" Marik said.

"It was self-defence!" Kaiba cut in. Self-defence? What was we talking about? "He was threatening us!"

"What? I was not!" What was Kaiba up to? The millionaire brat looked at the hall monitor, eyes wide and innocent.

"I left something in my locker, and Bakura came up here with me to get it. When we got up here, Marik comes running at us like a crazy person, waving a knife around and saying that he was gonna kill us!"

Marik's mouth fell open at the lie that slid so smoothly out of Kaiba's mouth. He couldn't believe his ears.

"That's a lie!" he insisted. "I don't even _have_ a knife!" He left his cutting instrument at home, under his pillow, since the school had a zero-tolerance policy when it came to weapons.

"Just check his pockets!"

The hall monitor turned to Marik.

"Empty your pockets, Marik," she said sternly.

Rolling his eyes, Marik thrust his hand into his pocket. His eyes widened when he touched something.

"_No way..."_ he thought as he pulled out a switchblade knife. "_Kaiba must've slipped it in my pocket when he grabbed me. That son of a-"_

"Well, I think that the principal needs to hear this. Come along, you three," the hall monitor said.

* * *

After hearing Kaiba's story (Bakura refused to comment), the principal turned to Marik.

"Anything to say for your self, Mr. Ishtar?" he asked.

"I didn't do anything," Marik muttered. What good was arguing at this point? He was trapped. He knew it, Kaiba knew it, and the principal knew it.

"Well, I would like to just take your word for it, but unfortunately the evidence speaks against you," the principal said. "Also," he continued. "I have received several reports from your teachers today. saying that among other things you were late to several of your classes today, released mice in the science lab, students were claiming you put a rat inside someone's desk...Marik, this is one of the worst parts of my job." The principal cleared his throat. Marik gulped.

"_What's he gonna do? Somehow I get the feeling he's not just gonna give me detention..."_

"Marik, I'm very sorry about this," the principal began. "But your behavior today leaves me no other choice. You are suspended until further notice."

Marik forgot how to breathe. There was no way that could have just happened. Slowly, he sank to his hands and knees, suddenly feeling unable to hold himself up. He stared at the floor, fighting back the pricking in his eyes that told him he was about to cry.

"S-suspended?"

* * *

**(1) I based their teacher loosely off of my own history teacher, who was late every day. But, unlike this teacher, my teacher locked the door when he left the room! So my classmates and I would be stuck in the hallway with our binders, notebooks, textbooks, pencil cases and everything else until he came and unlocked the door. (I have him as a teacher again next year...uuuuuuuugh!)**

**(2) This quote is from the musical Wicked. (Best. Musical. Ever!) I recently got the soundtrack and I always laugh every time I hear it, so of course I had to include it!**

**Well, this chapter took forever to type! I am dead serious when I say that this is the longest chapter in the story. Stuff is gonna start getting real good in the next couple of chapters, so stay tuned!**

**R&R, please!**


	14. Chapter 13

**A/N: Only two days after my last chapter, and I'm updating again! Summer boredom must be setting in. But there's no way I want to go back to school yet!**

**Thanks once again to the super special awesome people for their super special awesome reviews! These people being: seira-g, kingdomheartsforevs, Fujimori Chikaru, The Awesome Alchemist, NamiFluffy, tamiki-kun, PheonixHikaru, XxDragonEyexX, sandydragon, EuphrasieTheOwl, xXI. Hate. TwilightXx, and Lomcat99!**

* * *

After school, Bakura was in the weight room with Kaiba and the others. Everyone was celebrating their little "victory". Except for Bakura.

"We did it!" Leiko cried, hugging Duke, who was too busy high-fiving Weevil to bother pushing her away.

"Almost," Kaiba corrected. "He's been suspended, but that probably won't last for more than a few weeks. No worries, though. Because I have a plan that is sure to get Marik expelled."

Kaiba unzipped his backpack and pulled out a bottle of vodka.

"Sweet! Part time!" Amaya cried, making everyone (excluding Bakura) laugh. Even Kaiba chuckled.

"Not today, Amaya. But fear not, there's plenty more where this came from. Once this is found in Marik's locker, he'll be kicked out of school before he can blink." He walked over to the white-haired teen, who had been watching the whole exchange in silence. "Bakura, I've decided to give you the honor of putting this in Marik's locker. Congratulations," he said with an unfriendly smile. "You are now the best friend of Seto Kaiba."

"Oooh," the other kids said, impressed, for this was something all of them had been trying to achieve for months, and now this new boy, who had barely been here for two months, was lucky enough to obtain this honor.

Bakura gave the bottle in his hand a long look, then stared Kaiba right in the eyes.

"No." This was followed by a stunned silence. Then Kaiba broke it.

"What?" he growled.

"No," Bakura repeated, shoving the alcoholic drink back at Kaiba. "Look, it's been fun - well, not really 'fun', I guess - but I'm finished with you guys. It's a bit dull hanging with a guy who thinks he can do whatever he wants to just because he's a rich, spoiled brat who thinks he's better than everyone else." Kaiba glowered; no one had ever spoken like this to his face before.

"Just what are you saying, Touzoku?"

Bakura gave a small, nonchalant sigh. "Guess it's time to let the cat out of the bag. Or rather, the closet. I'm not like you, Kaiba, in more ways than one. I'm not rich. My family can barely make ends meet. I don't _enjoy_ruining people's lives, because my life is a pretty big wreck as well. And, most importantly, I'm not straight as an arrow. I swing both ways." He looked at the small group of teens, who were watching with open mouths. "That's right - I'm bisexual, and I don't mind admitting it." He turned back to Kaiba, smirking in self-satisfaction. "How about that, Kaiba? A part-time fag, hanging with you this whole time, and you didn't even know it."

For a moment, Kaiba just stood there, supposedly in shock. Then, eyes narrowing, he balled his hand into a fist and socked Bakura, right in the jaw. Bakura took the hit easily, still smirking.

"You'll have to do better than that, I'm afraid. I used to get worse from my father."

Furious, Kaiba raised the vodka bottle and brought it down towards Bakura's head. Luckily, Bakura dodged just in time, so the bottle went crashing to the floor instead. Bakura winced slightly as a few glass shards embedded themselves in his ankle. Breathing hard, Kaiba pointed to the door.

"Get. The hell. Out."

"With pleasure." Head held high, Bakura picked up his backpack, saluted Kaiba mockingly and strode out of the weight room

_"I just hope that wasn't one more big mistake I've made..."_ he thought.

* * *

"Suspended?" Marik cringed when he heard Odion say that word. "Dang, Marik, what did you _do_?"

"I didn't do anything! A bunch of other kids at school who hate me did a bunch of crap that I got blamed for!" Marik protested.

"Well, why didn't you tell the principal that they did the stuff that happened?" Marik shook his head hopelessly.

"What was there that I could have said? All the evidence there was pointed at me! I was screwed the minute I stepped into the Principal's office!" Marik sat down on the couch and buried his face in his hands. Odion patted his shoulder in what was supposed to be a comforting way.

"Well, maybe Mom and Dad can - "

"Mom and Dad!" Marik bolted up. "What am I supposed to tell them? 'Oh, yeah, I can't go to school for a couple of weeks because I got blamed for stuff other kids did and now I'm suspended'?" The tone of Marik's voice was getting closer and closer to hysteria.

"Marik!" Odion grabbed his younger brother's shoulders and shook him once. "Calm down!" Marik wrenched free of Odion's grip.

"Why do _I_ have to be the only one on this family with problems?" He ran upstairs, only to return a few moments later. "I need some air," he muttered, walking out the door.

"Marik!" Odion tried to call him back, but Marik ignored him. His mind was in too much of a fog to even think clearly. All Marik knew was that his life sucked and he wanted nothing more than to get rid of the pain.

Forever.

* * *

**I'm pretty sure that this is one of the shortest chapters in this story, but personally, I think it's the most dramatic. I don't know if anyone agrees with me on the "dramatic" part, but I'm sure everyone agrees on the "short" part.**

**R&R, please!**


	15. Chapter 14

**A/N: Okay, part of me wanted to be really mean and keep you guys waiting for a long time before uploading this chapter. But another part of me was really bored and wanted to type this up. Boredom: 1 Meanness: 0.**

**Thanks to: seira-g, sandydragon, Tamiki-kun, xXI. Hate. TwilightXx, j bear, Fujimori Chikaru, The Awesome Alchemist, Kknown, and EuphrasieTheOwlfor reviewing!**

* * *

Marik wasn't quite sure where he was going. His feet were carrying him of their own accord. But when they led him to a dark, secluded alley not far frm the school, he knew exactly where he was.

This was the same place where Kaiba had beaten Marik, two years ago.

"Kaiba would like this," Marik muttered darkly. "The same place where he tried to kill me and here I am..." He reached into his pocket, pulling out what he had run upstairs to get before he left the house. A large pocket knife.

He flipped it open, staring at the blade. This particular knife used to belong to Odion. When he got a new one, he had given it to Malik, who rarely used it. As a result the blade was rather dull. It would hurt more than a sharp knife.

"Good," Marik said. "I deserve to suffer." He tightened his grip on the handle. "Nobody cares about me, so I should just...die!" He raised the knife and dug it into his wrist, slashing mercilessly at his arm. Oblivious to the blood pouring from the wound, he repeated the ritual to his other arm, relishing the unbearable pain as the crimson liquid splashed onto the ground. But it wasn't nearly enough pain for Marik.

He gripped the knife tightly in his blood-soaked hands (the handle was starting to get rather slippery) and plunged it into his side. He let out a cry of pain, but he twisted the knife several times before brutally yanking it out.

Marik drew in a shaky breath as the knife slid from his fingers. He was starting to feel dizzy. How much blood had he lost...? He felt himself falling, but couldn't find the strength to catch himself. He crumpled onto the ground.

He heard a familiar voice. "Marik?" Running feet. "Marik!" Someone was pulling him into a sitting position. "Marik, hang on! Don't die, I-I'll call a doctor!"

"_Just leave me alone,"_ Marik thought. "_What's the point if no one cares if I live or die?"_ He wanted to say this aloud, but it was a struggle just to stay concious.

"Marik, please! Just stay with me!" There was a pause. "Marik, I-I love you!"

What? Who was this? Marik forced his eyes open. His vision was too blurry. He couldn't see a face. He could just barely make out silky white hair and chocolate brown eyes. He knew only two people who looked like that. But it couldn't be the one he was hoping for. Bakura hated him, so it couldn't be him. It was just Ryou, trying to make Marik feel like he wasn't a total loser who should never have been born.

Disappointment crushed the last of Marik's strength, and he slumped down, finally unconcious.

* * *

Bakura walked down the street, heading home. Kaiba actually hadn't reacted nearly as bad as he had expected, but that could have just been shcok of hearing Bakura admit to being bi so easily. Next time they saw each other, it would probably be much worse.

"So now all I have to do is avoid Seto Kaiba for the rest of my life," Bakura muttered. He let out a breath. "Yeah, _that'll_ be easy."

Bakura stopped when he heard a faint cry.

"What the hell was that?" It sounded like it had come from the alley that he had passed a few minutes ago. Cautiously, he walked towards it, ready to use his school bag as a weapon if necessary.

The last thing he was expecting to see was Marik Ishtar, covered with blood, lying on the ground.

"Marik?" Bakura said, not able to comprehend what he was seeing at first. He started running towards the Egyptian boy. "Marik!" He knelt down and pulled Marik up into a half-stiing position. "Marik, hang on!" he begged. "Don't die - " Why did that have to be the first thing that came to his mind? "I-I'll call a doctor!" Now he was just trying to assure himself. There was so much blood...could Marik already be dead?

"_NO!"_ Bakura screamed in his head. "Marik, please! Just stay with me!" He looked down at the boy he was holding and said the words he had been longing to say but had at the same time been denying for the longest time.

"I-I love you!"

Marik's eyes fluttered open. Bakura almost sobbed with relief. Marik stared at him without seeing him for a few moments, then slumped into unconciousness.

"Oh, God, what do I do? You're not supposed to move someone who's bleeding or unconcious...especially not both! What do I do? What do I do?"

"_Calm down,"_ the voice of reason spoke from the very back of Bakura's mind. "_Call 9-1-1 and get an ambulence."_

"Right." Bakura pulled out his cell phone. "9-1-1." He waited desperately for someone to pick up. "I need an ambulence over here now. I'm in an alley...No, I don't know the street name...It's about three blocks from Domino City High School...It's-it's my friend. He's bleeding really badly...Yeah, he's unconcious...I just don't know what to do!" Bakura was surprised; this was quite a bit easier than he had thought, considering it was the first time he had ever called 9-1-1.

"Don't panic, someone will be over there right away."

"Thankyou." He lowered his voice so that he could hardly hear himself. "You're going to be okay, Marik. An ambulence will be here soon and you can go to the hospital. You'll be okay." He pulled Marik against him, hugging him gently, but fiercely.

"God, _please_ be okay, Marik!"

* * *

**I'm pretty sure that's not exactly how Bakura pictured confessing his feelings to Marik, but it could be the only chance he gets. Is Marik going to survive? Tune in next time to find out! (What is it with me and sounding like a bad soap opera all of a sudden?)**

**R&R, please!**


	16. Chapter 15

**A/N: I actually wasn't planning on typing this up and posting it until tomorrow, but my brother's leaving for college in about two days, so we're having a get-together with a bunch of relatives to celebrate his last day at home. So I wouldn't know when I'd have the chance to get it typed up and everything. And, since he's going away, I'm dedicating this chapter to my brother. Even though he hasn't read it, and never will read it because for one thing, he doesn't like yaoi, and for another thing, he doesn't like fanfiction. The boy is crazy.**

**Thanks to: sandydragon, EuphrasieTheOwl, seira-g, PheonixHikaru, Fujimori Chikaru, xXI. Hate. , XxDragonEyexX, and Champion Seto Kaiba for reviewing!**

* * *

Bakura followed the doctor through the hallways of the hospital.

"It's lucky that you found him, young man. Most people your age would have panicked in a situation like that, but you were able to keep calm and call us right away."

"_Calm...sure, let's go with that,"_Bakura thought. "So, Marik's gonna be alright, then?" he asked, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice.

"Yes, I'm happy to say that your friend is going to be a-okay."

Bakura let out a sigh of relief. "Good." The doctor looked at his watch.

"Would you like to see him? We had to put him under for a little while, but he should be waking up soon."

"Yes, I would." _I don't want to see him. I _need_ to see him._

"Only for a few minutes, though. Visiting hours are almost over."

"Okay." _I just need to see for myself that he's okay..._

The doctor led Bakura to Marik's room. Bakura drew in a sharp breath at the sight before him.

Bandages were wrapped tightly around both of Marik's arms. He probably had more wrapped around his torso, too. A tube was connected to Marik's right arm, allowing some liquid unknown to Bakura drip in. Marik's skin had paled from a healthy, Egyptian bronze to a pale, sickly yellowish shade.

"As you can probably see, he's lost quite a bit of blood. The wounds on his arms were fairly deep, but we were able to stop the bleeding. He did need stitches for that gash in his side, however," the doctor said. "Oh, I think he's waking up now." Sure enough, Marik's eyes were beginning to open. Bakura sat down in a n empty chair next to Marik's bed.

"Hey, marik," he said. "How are you feeling?"

Marik glanced over at Bakura and slowly, painfully pushed himself into a sitting position.

"Careful. Try not to move too much," the doctor warned.

"Wha-what happened?" Marik asked.

"What happened? 'What happened' is that you almost _died_, Marik! I came along just in time to save your life," Bakura responded. Marik's eyes widened.

"_You_? But I..." his voice trailed off as the doctor started speaking again.

"I'll be able to explain more when your parents arrive. I called them a few minutes ago, so they should be here - "

"Marik!"

"...Now." The doctor looked at his watch. "Wow, they're fast!"

The door opened and Marik's family rushed in. At the sight of her youngest child sitting in a hospital bed, covered with bandages and deathly pale, Mrs. Ishtar looked like she might need a hospital room of her own.

"Oh, Marik, what happened?"

"I-I don't really know. All I remember is getting really upset because of..." Marik subtly glanced at Odion, who gave the smallest shake of his head. He hadn't told their parents about Marik's suspension yet. "...something at school. I couldn't really think straight, and I guess I got carried away with..." he trailed off, staring at his bandaged arms.

"With _what?_" Mr. Ishtar asked impatiently. He had been at work when his wife had called him, saying they needed to go to Domino Hospital right away because of Marik. It wasn't quite the thing a father wants to hear at the end of the day.

Marik slowly traced his finger around his bandages.

"Let's just say there's a few older scars underneath these bandages," he said.

"Marik Ishtar! You haven't been _cutting_ yourself, have you?" Mr. Ishtar cried in realization.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Marik nodded once. Ishizu covered her mouth with both hands.

"So _that's_ what you were doing in the bathroom that night," she realized.

"Yes," Marik replied softly. "I don't know why, it just seemed to help me with life."

Mrs. Ishtar turned to the doctor.

"Thank you for saving him, doctor," she said gratefully.

"Oh, don't thank me," came the reply. "Thank this brave young man over here. If he hadn't called us when he did, well, let's just say that young Marik over there would be in a very different room right about now."

All eyes turned to Bakura, who had been feeling increasingly awkward with Marik's family in the room. He stood up.

"Um, I - " Whatever he was about to say was cut off as Mrs. Ishtar suddenly pulled him into a tight hug.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you! I can't tell you what it means to me that you saved my son!"

Bakura blushed. He gulped as Mrs. Ishtar released him.

"I, er, I just did what anyone would have done, ma'am," he said. Luckily, the doctor saved him from anymore uncomfortable moments.

"We'll be keeping Marik here for a few days to keep an eye on him," he said in a businesslike way. "After that he can return home, but he'll probably need to stay in bed and recover for a while. Now, if you'll please follow me..." He walked out of the room, Marik's parents following behind while their other children said goodbye to their brother.

Ishizu gently hugged Marik.

"See you soon, Marik," she said. With a shy smile at Bakura, she followed her parents.

Odion ruffled Marik's hair.

"I won't tell Mom and Dad about your little 'problem' at school," he said. "I think Mom's already close enough to having a heart attack without me dropping another bomb on her."

"Thanks Odion," Marik replied. "And I'm sure that keeping this a secret from Mom right now will make things even easier when we do tell her."

"That is a good point," Odion admitted. "Maybe I'll tell her after all." He nodded at Bakura and followed his sister.

Malik grinned at Marik. "Glad your okay, baby brother." He turned to Bakura. He held his hand out to shake, only to end up pulling Bakura into a hug.

"Thank you. I can't thank you enough for saving my little brother." He pulled back and popped his jacket collar, trying to maintain his "tough-and-cool-guy" appearance and cover his slight blunder.

"See ya in school," he muttered, jogging after his family. Marik and Bakura were alone. Bakura cleared his throat.

"Visiting hours are over. I should probably - "

"Not. So. Fast." Marik looked at him. "You've got a lot of explaining to do.

"Like what?"

"Like why the hell you saved me? What gives? I thought you hated me."

Bakura smiled. Then he leaned forward and gently kissed Marik on the forehead.

"You thought wrong. I'll explain tomorrow."

Marik tipped his head to one side and crinkled his face in confusion.

"You know, you look really...cute when you're confused," Bakura told him before turning and leaving the room.

He was halfway down the hallway when Marik shouted, "What the hell was _that_supposed to mean, you freakin' bastard?" Bakura smiled and shook his head.

"_Damn hormones,_" he thought. "_I've fallen for an idiot."_

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**And I'm sure he means "idiot" in the nicest way possible. And I'm quite certain that Malik absolutely hates me for making him do something so out-of-character as *gasp* **_**hugging **_**someone! (Without killing them, that is.) Wow...only one chapter of this story left...I think that this is the first story I've actually completed (other than my oneshots) that isn't a total fail!**

**R&R, please!**


	17. Chapter 16

**A/N: And here it is, the last chapter! I'm actually rather sad to see this story ending, but all good things must come to an end, am I right?**

**Thanks to: xXI. Hate. TwilightXx, j bear, The Awesome Alchemist, seira-g, Fujimori Chikaru, EuphrasieTheOwl, and sandydragon for reviewing!**

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_Knock, knock, knock._ Mrs. Ishtar opened the door.

"Oh, hello, Ryou, Bakura," she said. "What can I do for you?"

"Hello, Mrs. Ishtar," Bakura said politely. "Do you think we could see Marik for a second? We came to drop off his homework."

The principal had gotten an "anonymous" tip that someone had been trying to frame Marik to get him kicked out of school. It also helped that the switchblade found in Marik's pocket had the initials "S.K." written on the handle. The principal had canceled Marik's suspension, but the poor boy still wasn't quite well enough to go back to school just yet.

"Really? I asked Malik to do that."

"Well, you see, Mrs. Ishtar," Bakura began. "Somehow Malik got the thought in his head that it would be funny to put a rubber snake in the math teacher's desk. She's quite afraid of snakes, Mrs. Ishtar. Needless to say, Malik now has a detention for today. Quite personally, I think that the rest of the basketball team put him up to it, but they won't admit it. In any case, Malik asked us to bring Marik his homework."

"I wonder about that boy sometimes. Marik's in his room, upstairs, go right in."

"Thank you, Mrs. Ishtar."

The two boys entered the house. Once they were out of Mrs. Ishtar's earshot, Ryou whispered, "So, when do you plan on telling her that you _paid _Malik to stick that snake in the teacher's desk so that you would have an excuse to come see Marik?"

"Shh!"

Ryou laughed, then knocked on Marik's bedroom door.

"Come in."

Ryou gestured for Bakura to go in first. "After you, Romeo."

"Shut up." Bakura opened the door and stepped in. Marik was sitting in bed, reading a magazine, but he looked up when the two boys came in. He blinked, obviously surprised.

"Um, hi, guys," he said.

"Hi, Marik," the two said in unison. Bakura held up a folder.

"We came to drop off your homework," he explained.

"I though Malik was gonna - "

"Long story."

"Oh." Marik reached out and took the folder. "Thanks." There was an awkward silence. Ryou cleared his throat.

"Uh, Bakura..." Before he could say anymore, Odion poked his head in the room.

"Either of you two know anything about computers?" he asked Ryou and Bakura. "My laptop crashed."

"Again?" Marik said. "Were you downloading one of those online games while doing college work and IMing people again?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I was." Odion shrugged sheepishly. "I thought it'd be okay."

"This is the seventh time this has happened, Odion!"

"Eighth," Odion muttered. "So, any ideas from anyone?"

"I can take a look at it," Ryou offered. "I'm pretty good with electronic stuff. Sometimes."

"Thanks, kid." Ryou followed Odion out of Marik's bedroom, leaving Bakura and Marik alone. Bakura shifted uncomfortably.

"Uh...do you mind if I sit down?" he asked.

"Go ahead." Marik gestured for Bakura to sit on the bed. Bakura sat.

"So, um, how are you doing?"

"Pretty good, I guess. I'm going to get the stitches removed in a couple of days."

"That's good."

"I guess. But my dad says that as soon as my stitches are out, I'm grounded for all eternity."

"That's a pretty long time." There was a brief pause. "But I think I'll be able to wait." Marik sighed.

"Will you stop that?" Bakura blinked, puzzled.

"Stop what?"

"Stop saying stuff like that! It's...weird."

"At the hospital - "

"Please don't talk about what happened at the hospital," Marik said, looking away.

"Why not?" Bakura asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You...kind of embarrassed yourself in front of my family, your brother, my friends, Yugi's brother, Yugi's brother's girlfriend, Yugi's grandfather, and that nurse who happened to walk in at that exact moment."

"You had a lot of visitors, didn't you? I'll admit it was a little embarrassing to have a nurse hear that, but I could honestly care less about everyone else."

Bakura put two fingers under Marik's chin and turned his head, forcing the Egyptian boy to look him in the eyes.

"Do you need me to say it again?" he whispered. "'Cause I will." Marik nodded.

"I-I guess so," he said. "Just in case I didn't hear you right the first time."

"Alright. I love you, Marik Ishtar," Bakura said, speaking quite clearly. Marik couldn't help but blush. No one (except for his parents, but that was different) had ever said those words to him before. It made his heart race and butterflies collect in his stomach as a smile made its way onto his face.

Long, white hair hung in the boy's face. His eyes sparked mischievously as he cupped Marik's face in one hand. Marik suppressed a small shiver as the boy leaned in closer...closer...

"Wait." Marik put a hand on Bakura's chest, holding him back. Bakura sighed and lowered his hand.

"What?" he asked. Marik smiled sheepishly.

"I don't really know. I guess this just seems a bit...strange," he said. Bakura smirked.

"I guess it is a bit odd, when one of your worst enemies becomes your boyfriend," he said. Marik's eyes grew huge and his heart sped up. _Boyfriend?_

"If that's what you want, that is," Bakura added quickly. "I don't want to force you into anything."

Marik looked at the rug, at the ceiling, and finally back at Bakura.

"Bakura, I-I think that's what I've wanted since I first saw you."

Bakura smiled and leaned closer to Marik.

"Good," he said. "That's what I was hoping for." He leaned in a bit closer and, when Marik didn't stop him, gently pressed his lips to the Egyptian teen's. Marik put his arms around Bakura's neck, closing his eyes. Maybe it was instinct, maybe it was all those stupid romance movies his sister always made him watch, but whatever the reason, Marik was pretty sure you were supposed to close your eyes while kissing.

Ryou started to come back into the room. Seeing his brother and Marik, he stopped, one foot in the doorway, and slowly stepped backwards until he was safely out of the sight of the other two boys. Not that they had noticed him, but it was still polite to give them privacy. Grinning, Ryou leaned against the wall and folded his arms.

"_Atta boy, Kura-kun,_" he thought. "_Maybe now you'll leave the bills to Mom, like she always tells you to, and you're life will be a bit happier." _Ryou's smile faded as his train of thought continued. "_But now the richest and meanest kid in school knows that you're bisexual. That might not be too much of a problem in itself, but now you're _dating_the guy Kaiba hates most! Be careful, Bakura. You may think that our father was the worst person you ever had to deal with, but Kaiba has money and power, making him even worse. Congratulations, Bakura,"_ he thought with a small shake of the head. "_You've managed to get a boyfriend, an enemy, and a reputation that the entire school's gonna know about within a couple of days! And it's only freshman year!"_

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**That's it. It's done. I would like to thank anyone who reviewed, favorited, alerted, or just read this story. Now, I have a question. Would anyone be interested in a sequel to this story? I have a plot in mind, but I won't write it if no one is interested in reading it.**

**As always, R&R**


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